Marcus Aurelius Distributing Bread to the People

Louis XV had Marigny commission a cycle of paintings on the virtues of great rulers. At the Salon of 1765 Vien presented this painting. Diderot commented it: “The pose of Marcus Aurelius is not displeasing; it is simple and natural; but his face is without expression; it is truly unpained, without commiseration, steeped in all the apathy of his cult.” Diderot’s conclusion was that the painting was a “composition without warmth or liveliness, no poetry, no imagination…. they are just so many pieces of card cut out and placed one over another.”