Activity 1

You have read a great deal about the Decalration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) and the role it played in defining the ideals of the French Revolution. Take a moment to read the Declaration and consider what it actually articulates. Three years after the National Assembly ratified the Declaration, Olympe de Gouge published a complementary document. Read the following excerpts from her Declaration of the Rights of Woman with these questions in mind: How do these two documents resemble and differ from each other? What underlying principles and assumptions do they share? What principles and assumptions does de Gouge's Declaration containe that the earlier document does not? Soon after publishing the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, de Gouge was tried and executed: why do you think the authorities were so threatened by her Declaration?

Activity 2

One of the most important cultural figures of the French revolutionary period was the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1845). Read a short biography of David and then examine a few of his most famous works: The Death of Socrates, The Lictors Bring Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, Oath of the Horatii, and Marat Assassinated. What style does David's work exemplify. How does it differ from the works of the Rococo artists you examines in the second Web activity for Chapter 19? What values does David's art represent? Why do you think his work was so popular during the French Revolution?