Page 40 - Revolution Republique Empire Restauration

Fig. 2 able popularity at this time and would have been read-
ily identified as a paragon of civic virtue and therefore
something of a role model for Miot. The bust in the a powerful Republican symbol.26 After leading the
portrait is a marble copy after the late fourth century revolt against Tarquin and delivering Rome from his
B.C. original in the Capitoline Museum, Rome (Fig. tyranny, Brutus had been appointed her first consul.
2). The so-called ‘Capitoline Brutus’ enjoyed remark- One of his first acts as Consul was to condemn his
own sons, Titus and Tiberius, to death for military
incompetence during the revolt27, an episode David
used in his celebrated composition The Lictors bring
Brutus the bodies of his sons, exhibited in the Salon of
1789 (Fig. 3).28 Additionally, and on a specifically
personal level, Miot wanted to be associated with the
Roman figure because the greatest accomplishment of
his Florentine career was the armistice arranged
between France and the Papal States and the signing of
the ratification with Pius VI in Bologna on 9 messidor,
IV (June 27, 1796). Bonaparte now had such confi-
dence in Miot that he entrusted him to take full
charge in vigorously implementing all Papal conces-
sions, in particular article 8:

‘The pope will deliver to the French Republic, one hundred
paintings, busts, vases or statues so chosen by a commission-
aire, who will be sent to Rome.These objects will specifically
include the bronze bust of Julius Brutus, and the marble bust
of Marcus Brutus, which are both in the Capitoline.’29

Miot proceeded to send a delegation of commissionaires
in order to prepare the ground, and it is partly to his
credit that on 9 thermidor IX (July 27, 1798) Parisians,
viewing Napoleon’s triumph of the Papal spoils,30

26. See for the critical fortune of this subject: Robert L. Herbert, Art in Context J. L. David Brutus, London, 1972, where the preparatory sketch for our
painting is cited on p. 148, under note 127.
27. An episode which scholars now largely regard as a fiction.
28. Republican cartoons depicting La Liberté, L’Egalité and Brutus were originally destined for the salons of the Comités de Salut Public, the Sûreté générale,
and the Législation, du Commerce et du Comité militaire.They were the subject of a special commission from the manufacturers Jacquemart et Bénard. Cited
by P.Arrizoli-Clémentel in ‘Les Arts du décor’ in Aux Armes et aux Arts, les arts de la Révolution 1789-1799, p. 310, note 43. See also F. Haskell and N. Penny,
Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981, no. 14, p. 163-164.
29. Armistice de Bologne, le 9 messidor an IV, Archives of the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, La Courneuve.
30. Archives Nationales : F 17 A, 1275 AB. Dossier 2 Ch. 5.

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