Rivoluzione chimica o Antico Regime? Una nuova interpretazione del ritratto di Jacques-Louis David dei coniugi Lavoisier

In September 2021, two articles were published presenting the results of detailed analyses conducted during the restoration of Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Mr and Mrs Lavoisier. Based on this important work, the authors of the two essays formulated a new interpretation of the painting and suggested that in the first version, the main intention of David and his patrons was to depict an upper-class Parisian couple without any explicit reference to the scientific interests that later became central in the final version. In the present essay I put forward a different interpretation, emphasizing all the elements that bring continuity between the two versions of the painting, thus showing two complementary ways of representing the scientific activities carried out by the Lavoisiers at the Arsenal.