Art Criticism In The Oath Of The Horatii

The oath of horatti
In 1785 there was one particular painting that visitors were transfixed on, Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii. In this Artwork it depicts three men, brothers, saluting toward three swords that are held up by their father, meanwhile the women behind him grieve.The revolutionary painting changed French art.
David created an organized painting in a scene set in, what seems be a Roman atrium that is dominated by three arches in the background which keeps our attention focused on the main subject in the foreground. In this Artwork we see a group of three young men that are framed by the first arch that lay in the background behind them. The Horatii brothers, seem bound together with their muscled arms raised in a salute toward their father whom is framed by the central arch. The father holds three swords in his left hand and raises his right hand to signifying a promise or some sort of sacrifice. The male figures create tense, geometric forms that stand in contrast to the softly curved feminine poses of the women who are situated behind the father. The figures have a clinical light that sharply contrasts the heightened drama of the scene portrayed in the artwork, thus requiring the viewer to respond to the scene with rationality.

The dramatic gestures of the male figures indicate the main idea of the artwork, oath-taking. The light in the work makes every aspect of the visual story legible. David seems to cut off the space with the use of the arches in the background and pushes the subject matter/story to the foreground in a similar fashion of Roman relief