Why did Jacques-Louis David study in Rome?

Jacques-Louis David’s study in Rome was primarily facilitated by his success in winning the Prix de Rome in 1774, a prestigious government scholarship that provided artists with a period of residence in Italy.1

While in Rome, David was exposed to various artistic influences, including the Bolognese school, Nicolas Poussin, and Caravaggio. Crucially, his time there allowed him to engage deeply with Neoclassical doctrines developed by figures such as Anton Raphael Mengs and Johann Joachim Winckelmann. By visiting ancient sites like Herculaneum, Paestum, and Pompeii, David experienced a profound shift in his artistic perspective, which he later described as having been "operated on for cataract of the eye," leading him to embrace the aesthetics of antiquity.1

He later returned to Rome in 1784 with a commission to complete a painting, which resulted in the creation of the Oath of the Horatii, a work that became a defining manifesto for Neoclassicism.2