Oath of the Horatii

Oath of the Horatii
Artist	Jacques-Louis David
Year	1784
Type	Oil on canvas
Location	Louvre, Paris

Oath of the Horatii (1784) is a painting by Jacques-Louis David, painted before the French Revolution, depicting the Roman salute. The theme of the painting has an extreme patriotic and neoclassical perspective; it later became a model work for future painters. The painting augmented David's fame, and allowed him to rear his own students.

Symbolic theme

The painting depicts the Roman Horatii, who according to Titus Livius' Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) were male triplets destined to wage war against the "Curiatii," who were also male triplets, in order to settle disputes between the Romans and the Albans from the city of Alba Longa. As revolution in France loomed, paintings urging loyalty to the state rather than to clan or clergy abounded. Although it was painted nearly five years before the revolution in France, the Oath of the Horatii became one of the defining images of the time.

In the painting, the three brothers express their loyalty and solidarity with Rome before battle, wholly supported by their father. These are men willing to lay down their lives out of patriotic duty. In this patriarchal society, the steely men, with their resolute gaze and taut, outstretched limbs are citadels of republican patriotism. They are symbols of the highest virtues of the Republic, while the tender-hearted women lie weeping and mourning, content to wait.

The mothers and sisters are shown clothed in silken garments seemingly melting into tender expressions of sorrow. Their despair is partly explained by the fact that one sister was engaged to one of the Curiatii and another is a sister of the Curiatii, married to one of the Horatii. Upon defeat of the Curiatii, the remaining Horatius journeyed home to find his sister cursing Rome over the death of her fiancé. He killed her, horrified that Rome was being cursed. Originally David had intended to depict this episode, and a drawing survives showing the surviving Horatius raising his sword, with his sister lying dead. David later decided that this subject was too gruesome a way of sending the message of public duty overcoming private feeling, but his next major painting depicted a similar scene - Lucius Junius Brutus brooding as the bodies of his sons, whose executions for treason he had ordered, are returned home.

The painting shows the three brothers on the left, the Horatii father in the center, and the sister/wives on the right. The Horatii brothers are depicted swearing upon (saluting) their swords as they take their oath. As members of a patriarchal society, the men show no sense of emotion. Even the father, who holds up three swords, shows no emotion. On the right, three women are weeping -- one in the back and two up closer. The woman dressed in the white is a Horatius weeping for both her Curiatii fiancé and her brother; the one dressed in brown is a Curiatius who weeps for her Horatii husband and her brother. The background woman in black holds two children -- one of whom is the child of a Horatius male and his Curiatii wife. The younger daughter hides her face in her nanny’s dress as the son refuses to have his eyes shielded.

"This painting occupies an extremely important place in the body of David’s work and in the history of French painting. The story was taken from Livy. We are in the period of the wars between Rome and Alba, in 669 B.C. It has been decided that the dispute between the two cities must be settled by an unusual form of combat to be fought by two groups of three champions each. The two groups are the three Horatii brothers and the three Curiatii brothers. The drama lay in the fact that one of the sisters of the Curiatii, Sabina, is married to one of the Horatii, while one of the sisters of the Horatii, Camilla, is betrothed to one of the Curiatii. Despite the ties between the two families, the Horatii's father exhorts his sons to fight the Curiatii and they obey, despite the lamentations of the women."

Symbolic technique

This painting shows the neoclassical art style, and employs various techniques that were typical for it:

• The background is deemphasized, while the figure in the foreground are emphasized to show their importance.
• The use of dull colors is to show the importance of the story behind the painting over the painting itself.
• The picture is clearly organized, depicting the symbolism of the number three and of the moment itself.
• The focus on clear, hard details and the lack of use of the more wispy brushstrokes preferred by Rococo art.
• The brushstrokes are invisible, to show that the painting is more important compared to the artist
• The frozen quality of the painting is also intended to emphasize rationality, unlike the Rococo style.
• The only emotion shown is from the women, who were allowed to feel, while it was for the men to do their duty with heroic determination.
• The fact that it also depicts a morally complex or disturbing story lends to its classification as a neoclassical work.

Reception

Royalty, churchmen, and aristocrats went to view the painting; it was eulogised, even the Pope wanted to view The Oath of the Horatii. David wanted the painting exhibited in the Salon, but it was delivered late, and enemies of his at the Academy took advantage to exhibit it in a poor locale in the gallery. In the event, public dissatisfaction with the poor viewing conditions, obliged the gallery to move the painting to a site proper for viewing the painting; moreover, David held The Oath of the Horatii on exhibit for some extra weeks, to permit reporters to write about all of the paintings exhibited, not just his.