The Death of Hyacinth

Within Jacques-Louis David’s studio there was a breakaway sect which was known by four names - the Barbus (Bearded ones), Penseurs (Thinkers), M�ditateurs (Meditators) or Primitifs (Primitives). This small group called for paintings based on the unadorned purity of the linear designs on ancient Greek pottery and on the simple and direct compositions of the early Italian Renaissance. In terms of painting they produced very little, their best-known work being the moonlit and crystalline Death of Hyacinth by Jean Broc of 1801.