The And The Coronation Of The Emperor And Madame Seurat s...

The role of colour in paintings had a major change with the advent of Post Impressionism. Colour changed from the traditional Neo-classicists methods to artists such as Seurat the Post-impressionist artist who was obsessed with the science behind art. . The main concepts I am discussing in terms of how the role of colour has changed are: the traditional role of colour, what made artists change their focus, science discoveries about light, optics and the difference between the colour use in the two styles; Neoclassicism and Post- Impressionism. Using Wolfflins model of interpretation I will compare the two uses of colour in Jacques Lois David’s â€Å"The Coronation of the Emperor and Empress† and Georges Seurat’s â€Å"The Circus†. In Neoclassical painting the role of colour wasn’t as important as the focus was more on the structure, form and composition of the painting. Many paintings at the time were used to represent or record an event accurately. David was one of the leading French Neoclassical artists at the time. He became Napoleon’s first hand painter and was commissioned to capture many scenes during the French Revolution. David was classically trained at the Academy and became an important figure in the canon of art. The main difference between the two art styles is the Neoclassical paintings mixed their paint on a palette to get the blended colour they wanted whilst the Post Impressionists used the science of optics to blend the colour in the viewers’ eye. Scientific