103. The oath of the Horatii. Jacques-Louis David. 1784 CE. Oil on canvas.

• Form
  • Male forms are vigorous, powerful, animated, emphatic, angular; symbolically they are figures of action
  • Female forms are soft and rounded, displaying “feminine” emotion; symbolically they are figures of inaction of reaction
  • Gestures are sweeping and unified
  • Figures are pushed to the foreground
  • Neoclassical drapery and tripartite composition
  • Not neoclassical in its Caravaggio-like lighting and un-Roman architectural capitals
• Patronage
  • Painted under royal patronage, Louis XVI
  • The artist presented the finished canvas in his study in Rome in 1785 and at the Paris Salon later that year–on both occasions to acclaim
• Content
  • Story of three Roman brothers(the Horatii) who do battle with three other brothers(The Curiatii–not painted) from the nearby city of Alba; they pledge their fidelity to their father and to Rome
  • One of the three women on the right is a Horatii engaged to one of the Curiatii brothers; another woman is the sister of the Curiatii brothers and wife of the eldest Horatii.
• Context
  • Exemplum virtutis
  • David presents this episode as an example of patriotism and stoicism, which should override family relationships.
  • Influenced by Enlightenment philosophers, such as Diderot, who advocated the painting of moral subjects.
  • Emulated Grand Style of French painting of the seventeenth century