Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI. (Noviembre 2016). Año XX (41), 45-65 ISSN: 1576-3420 https://doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2016.41.45-65 INVESTIGACIÓN/RESEARCH Recibido: 10/05/2016 --- Aceptado: 28/08/2016 --- Publicado: 15/11/2016 THE PAINTING OF HISTORY: THE PRESENT IN THE PAST OR THE PAST IN THE PRESENT? María Magdalena Ziegler Delgado1: Metropolitan University of Caracas. Venezuela Mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT Through the review of the five individual cases of the artists Jacques-Louis David, Benjamin West, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Eugene Delacroix and John Trumbull, it is shown how historical painting since the late XVIIIth Century presents a reinterpretation of the meaning of history and the facts of the past in their respective present. Although history painting is not a new genre at the end of the XVIIIth Century, it did have clear guidelines highly respected in academic circles in the West. The novelty is that a new view of history is approached, in tune with present needs is configured from the paintings. In this sense, assuming each of the artworks analyzed as the solution to a problem, every art work is deciphered as a solvent contribution. KEY WORDS Painting – History – Art – Philosophy of History 1 María Magdalena Ziegler Delgado: Doctor in History (UCAB). Full-time professor of Art History and Culture Mail:
[email protected] 45 LA PINTURA DE HISTORIA: ¿EL PRESENTE EN EL PASADO O EL PASADO EN EL PRESENTE? RESUMEN A través de la revisión de cinco los casos particulares de los artistas Jacques-Louis David, Benjamin West, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Eugene Delacroix y John Trumbull, se demuestra como la pintura de corte histórico desde finales del siglo XVIII presenta una re-interpretación del significado de la historia y los hechos del pasado en su respectivo presente.