[Jacques-Louis David] The Oath of the Horatii 荷拉斯兄弟之誓,1785

Jacques-Louis David: Le Serment des Horaces, 荷拉斯兄弟之誓,  Louvre




《荷拉斯兄弟之誓》（法語：Le Serment des Horaces）是法國畫家雅克-路易·大衛於1784年之作品。這是新古典主義的作品，亦是大衛的成名之作

畫家重視建築，借此表達理性。畫中三兄弟在左麵，父親在中間，三兄弟的妻子及姐妹在右麵。由於這是父權社會，畫中的男人都沒有表情。故事是講述羅馬與Alba國家的戰爭中，三兄弟向父親立下誓言以表決心，他們的姐妹的丈夫亦要被他們所殺。畫中男人手腳被畫成直線，以表示愛國心，即國家的最高道德。畫中女人則被畫成弧線，與男人造成對比，為大事等待男人解決。作者以這幅作品教育國民，使藝術與政治拉上關係。此畫以暗背景突出主題。定格的畫麵亦有助表現理性。此作品畫於法國大革命前，表示效忠國家比效忠民族、神更重要。

這幅畫有明顯的新古典主義藝術之風格，采用了不少有特色的技術。畫的背景十分暗，而人物則很明亮，令人物更突出。陰沈的顏色令背後的故事及其意義更為突出。畫麵構圖有精密的部署，突出三位兄弟，及故事的刹那間。焦點鮮明，物象清晰，沒蒙矓之意，與洛可可藝術有明顯分別。筆觸被隱藏，可見畫家重視作品比重視自己之感受更多。定格之畫麵更能表現理性，與洛可可藝術相反。隻有女性有表情，因為她們可用來表達感受，相反，畫中男性沒有表情，以表達嚴肅的英雄主義。這幅畫表達了複雜的道德及故事，令此畫被分類為新古典主義藝術。
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Compositional technique
This painting shows the neoclassical art style,^[4] and employs various techniques that were typical for it:

• The background is de-emphasized, while the figures in the foreground are emphasized.
• Overlapping ranks of profile figures are a common motif in classical art, and that of other ancient Near Eastern cultures.
• The central point of the hand clasping the swords is placed in front of the vanishing point of the perspective scheme, which is emphasized by the straight lines of the edges of the wall blocks and floor slabs of the architectural setting leading to it (see schematic).
• 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, and the painter's technique is not displayed as a distraction from the subject
• The men are all depicted with straight lines mirroring the columns in the background signifying their rigidity and strength while the women are all curved like the arches which are held up by the columns.
• The use of straight lines to depict strength is also demonstrated in the swords, two of which are curved while one is straight, perhaps foreshadowing that only one brother would survive the encounter.
• The brother closest to the viewer (presumably destined to be the sole survivor) is dressed in colors matching that of the father while the garb of the other brothers is obscured but seems to mimic the colors being worn by the women.
• 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 the men show stoic determination to do their duty.^[4]
• That it depicts a morally uplifting story, promoting civic duty over the personal, reflects the values of the Age of Enlightenment and neoclassical idealism
  
  
  

  The painting depicts the Roman Horatius family, who, according to Titus Livius' Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) had been chosen for a ritual duel against three members of the Curiatii, a family from Alba Longa, in order to settle disputes between the Romans and the latter city. 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. With their resolute gaze and taut, outstretched limbs, they are citadels of patriotism. They are symbols of the highest virtues of Rome. Their clarity of purpose, mirrored by David's simple yet powerful use of tonal contrasts, lends the painting, and its message about the nobility of patriotic sacrifice, an electric intensity. This is all in contrast to the tender-hearted women who lie weeping and mourning, awaiting the results of the fighting.

  The mother and sisters are shown clothed in silken garments seemingly melting into tender expressions of sorrow. Their despair is partly due to 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 three women along with two children on the right. The Horatii brothers are depicted swearing upon (saluting) their swords as they take their oath. 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.
  
  Symbolic theme
  

  According to Thomas Le Claire:

  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.
  
  
  
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