Jacques-Louis David on Art and Painting

Jacques-Louis David: Art and The State

"The arts must therefore contribute forcefully to the education of the public. Too long have tyrants, fearful even of the image of virtue, kept thought itself in chains, encouraged license, and stamped out genius; the arts are the imitation of nature in her most beautiful and perfect form; a feeling natural to man attracts him to the same end..."

Jacques-Louis David: Art and The Antique

" To give a body and a perfect form to one's thought, this - and only this - is to be an artist."

Jacques-Louis David: History Painting

" Rarely does one do good things to order, at least that has always been the effect that this way of working has had on me. This procedure was only good for second-rate painters. It is what caused Raphael and so many other first-raters to commit anachronisms they never should have allowed themselves, such as introducing modern popes into scenes depicting much earlier events."

Source
Goldwater, R & Treves, M. 1976. Artists on Art, From the 14th to the 20th Century . John Murray.

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