Focus on Mars Being Disarmed by Venus and explore the Political message.
In terms of technique, the painting can be described as combining idealism and realism, but art historians have sometimes seen this stylistic opposition as related to themes of gender and politics. David here departed from Neoclassicism, which typically glorified masculine virtue, often in service of the government. Venus subduing Mars takes on a political dimension insofar as it diverges from the aesthetic favored by the state, and which David had previously embraced. Art Historian Satish Padiyar argues that David, through the figures of Mars and Venus, “pulls his once authoritative language apart, shatters and disarms it.”
Neoclassicism Venus Mars