The scabbard as wardrobe - discretions of the "antique"

In contemporary and later depictions, ancient Greek warriors were most frequently portrayed as going into battle nearly or entirely nude. Which seems, for several reasons, rather... awkward? In later, slightly more prudish eras, all that male nudity could be problematic for artists whose intention was to depict one or more of the celebrated ancient heroes. One device employed to avoid so much full-frontal "military splendor" can often be found in French paintings of the Neoclassical period: a warrior's scabbard proved convenient for obscuring his most masculine attributes. This worked well enough while the subject - Achilles, Castor and Pollux, Leonidas, etc. - struck a beautifully static "antique" pose, but we might imagine that any sort of real-life movement - say, walking? - would be rather uncomfortable thus encumbered.

Achille donne à Nestor le prix de la sagesse, by Joseph-Désiré Court, 1820.

Hélène délivrée par Castor et Pollux, by Jean-Bruno Gassies, 1817.

Léonidas aux Thermopyles, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814.

Guerrier avec épée tirée, by Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti, 1808.

Briséis pleurant Patrocle, by Léon Cogniet, 1815.

Hélène délivrée par Castor et Pollux, by Amable-Paul Coutan, circa 1820s.

Thésée vainqueur du Minotaure, by François-Joseph Heim, 1807.

Egisthe croyant découvrir le corps d'Oreste mort, découvre celui de Clytemnestre, by Auguste-Hyacinthe Debay, 1823.

Soldat romain au repos, académie, by François-Xavier Fabre, 1788. In this case the covering is the attached sword belt, the baldric.

Antigone donnant la sépulture à Polynice, by Sébastien Norblin, 1825. Someone's arm also proves a useful aid to modesty.

Les Sabines / L'Intervention des Sabines / Les Sabines arrêtant le combat entre les Romains et les Sabins, by Jacques-Louis David, 1799.

Artists of the French Academy at the Villa Medici, 1817

L'Artiste dans sa chambre à la Villa Médicis, self-portrait by Léon Cogniet, 1817 or 18.

Louis Vincent Léon Pallière dans sa chambre à la Villa Médicis, by Jean Alaux, 1817.

L'Atelier de Picot à la Villa Médicis, by Jean Alaux, 1817.

Léon Cogniet (29 August 1794, Paris – 20 November 1880 Paris), French history and portrait painter. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1817, he was resident at the Villa Medici from 1817 to 1822.

Jean Alaux (15 January 1786, Bordeaux – 2 March 1864, Paris), called "le Romain" ("the Roman"), French history painter and director of the French Academy in Rome from 1846-52. Son of a painter, brother to three painters, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and won the Prix de Rome in 1815. He was a pensionnaire at the French Academy in Rome from 1816 to 1820.

Louis Vincent Léon Pallière (July 1787, Bordeaux - 28 December 1820, Bordeaux), French history painter. He won the Prix de Rome in 1812, and remained in Rome for five years.

François-Edouard Picot (October 10, 1786, Paris – March 15, 1868, Paris), painter of mythological, religious and historical subjects, won the Prix de Rome in 1813 and resided in Rome until 1817. He exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1819 and 1839, and was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur in 1832.

***

These four artists became friends while they were pensionnaires of the French Academy at the Villa Medici in Rome, all having won the Prix de Rome.  It's interesting to compare the rooms in the first two paintings; they look to be adjacent, as they share almost exactly the same view.  The third appears to be on another side of the building, as the view - the basilica of Saint Peter's and the Castel Sant'Angelo can just be made out in the distance - and the direction of the light are different.