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Abstract
The dissertation demonstrates how the most conservative political ideology during the formative years of Romanticism--Ultra-Royalism--influenced the content and style of art commissioned or purchased by the Duc de Blacas. From Ingres, he commissioned Henri IV and the Spanish Ambassador, The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, and Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter; he was also involved in the genesis of Roger Delivering Angelica. Blacas purchased Horace Vernet's La Mossa and commissioned the Medailles antiques series of ancient Greek coin lithographs from Delacroix.
The influence of Ultra-Royalism on subject matter is explored in the collection of the Duchesse de Berry and Ingres's Ultra-Royalist historical genre commissions. Four major themes arise: the importance of the Family, King, Church, and noblesse oblige in patronage.
Ingres's Henri IV is seen to propagate historic views on the semi-sacerdotal nature of the monarch and to reflect the Ultra conception of the royal family as a terrestrial Holy Family. The sacred nature of the king is reiterated in Roger and Angelica. Here the royalist tradition of viewing the king as Perseus saving Andromeda (France) is transformed into an image of Louis XVIII as Roger saving France from revolution, atheism, and civil war.
An understanding of the association of religion and royalty allows the reinterpretation of The Death of Leonardo as an illustration of the Throne and Altar alliance, as Ultras termed it. The importance of the French king in Church politics is seen in the commission for Christ and the Keys; the painting is seen as expressing Blacas's Gallican views on the Pope as a fallible administrator of the Church.
The influence of Ultra-Royalism extended to style. Ingres's Ultra-Royalist troubadour painting has distinct stylistic affinities with aristocratic art of the past such as the International Gothic Style. Vernet's Mossa, with its abundant topical and costume-piece detail, presents an Ultra-Royalist version of realism. Delacroix's Medailles antiques are a radical departure from previous coin imagery and an important influence on his development of theories on the nude, physiognomy, and animal combat. The commission arose from Blacas's following traditional ideals of noblesse oblige in patronage.
