Page "Jacques-Louis David" Paragraph 33

After the King's execution, war broke out between the new Republic and virtually every major power in Europe.

David, as a member of the Committee of General Security, contributed directly to the Reign of Terror.

The committee was severe.

Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine ; an event recorded in a famous sketch by David.

Portable guillotines killed failed generals, aristocrats, priests and perceived enemies.

David organized his last festival: the festival of the Supreme Being.

Robespierre had realized what a tremendous propaganda tool these festivals were, and he decided to create a new religion, mixing moral ideas with the Republic, based on the ideas of Rousseau, with Robespierre as the new high priest.

This process had already begun by confiscating church lands and requiring priests to take an oath to the state.

The festivals, called fêtes, would be the method of indoctrination.

On the appointed day, 20 Prairial by the revolutionary calendar, Robespierre spoke, descended steps, and with a torch presented to him by David, incinerated a cardboard image symbolizing atheism, revealing an image of wisdom underneath.