(mellow piano music) - [Dr. Steven Zucker] We're
standing in one of the largest galleries in the Louvre in Paris. It's filled with enormous paintings. We're looking at Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii. This was a painting that was made in 1984 and exhibited in 1785 and
this painting stole the show. It was absolutely new,
nobody had every seen anything like it. - [Dr. Beth Harris] The
prevailing style in France was the Rococo. We could think about artists
like Boucher or Fragonard, a style that applied to the aristocracy. - [Steven] And even in the
kind of history painting that was made for the king,
the style had become formulaic, it had become tired but
David's Oath of the Horatii establishes a new style
that we call Neoclassicism. - [Beth] Critics like Diderot
are calling for an art that depicts virtuous behavior,
very different from the prevailing Rococo style and
this painting answers that call. - [Steven] This is the tale
end of the period in France that we call the Enlightenment
with philosophers like Rousseau, Diderot and
Voltaire who posset the idea that the rational should
supersede tradition and the spiritual. - [Beth] The church was
incredibly powerful, the monarchy in France
was incredibly powerful and the philosophers of the
Enlightenment are asking questions about the validity of these very established institutions. - [Steven] And remember it
will only be a few years before the French Revolution begins. - [Beth] Right, this is exhibited in 1785, the revolution is 1789. - [Steven] And the American
Revolution has already taken place, based in
large part on the ideas of French Enlightenment philosophers. - [Beth] We have a story from
early Ancient Roman history. - [Steven] The early Roman
state is at war with the neighboring city of Alba. - [Beth] But instead of
the armies of each side going to war, they decide
to sent three brothers from each side to battle it out. Whoever survives is the
side that's victorious. - [Steven] The Romans chose the Horatii, and the city of Alba chooses the Curatii. - [Beth] But things get
very complicated because there are intermarriages
between these two families. So no matter who wins. - [Steven] Both sides will lose. - [Beth] Exactly. - [Steven] What we see is
the father of the Horatii holding swords aloft as
the sons take an oath to battle to the death. - [Beth] For Rome. - [Steven] On the right we see
three women and two children. There's some disagreement
as to who the woman in blue is in the back. - [Beth] We see two young
women in the foreground. One of them is a Curatii
sister and she's married to one of the Horatii brothers. - [Steven] The other is a
Horatii by birth but will marry one of the Curatii. - [Beth] Families will be
torn apart by this battle. - [Steven] No matter what happens. - [Beth] By making the
women appear so curvilinear, so passive, they don't
even have their eyes open, David is suggesting an idea
that was very prevalent in the philosophy of
Rousseau, for example, that women could not be
true citizens of the state, they were unable to think
about civic responsibility. Women could only think about
the personal and the familial. - [Steven] And look at how David
has depicted that contrast. If the women are curvilinear,
if their bodies are limp, the male figures are rigid,
they are upright, they are tall, they are strong. - [Beth] They are angular in
the forms of their bodies. They raise their arms together. There's a sense of purpose
that is completely absent from the women who
appear to be just victims of circumstance here. - [Steven] The young men
are working in unison. Their arms salute in unison. There is clearly a reverence
for the idea of strength in a kind of brotherhood,
in a kind of collective. - [Beth] David represents
all of this in a classical, classicizing style, looking
back to Ancient Greece and Rome. There is an interest in
the anatomy of the body, of carefully depicting the
musculature, the movement of the body that is
directly from Ancient Greek and Roman art. - [Steven] In fact, the
lighting, which rakes across the surface, reminds me of
an Ancient Greek or Roman relief carving and all of this
is set within a simplified stone interior with rounded roman arches, simplified Tuscan columns
and a pavement that creates a geometric stage for these figures. - [Beth] And if we follow
the orthogonal lines created by that pavement,
we end at a vanishing point. - [Steven] Right where the
father's hand clasps the swords. - [Beth] If we think about the
lushness, the luxuriousness of Rococo painting, to me this painting is the exact opposite. It's one that speaks of
the virtue of simplicity over the the indulgence
of the Rococo style. Exactly what the Enlightened
philosophers were calling for artists to do. - [Steven] And audiences
recognized that stark contrast. In fact the Salon had to
stay open longer than had originally been scheduled
just to accommodate the numbers of people that wanted to see it. - [Beth] One of the most
fascinating things about this painting is that during the
revolution, the brothers and their willingness
to die for their country resonates with the
revolutionaries who must make sacrifices of themselves
and their families for the ideals of the revolution. - [Steven] And David does
become a revolutionary himself and so it's very tempting to
read back into this painting but we have to remember that
the painting was completed several years before the
revolution, although it was certainly informed by the
same philosophical values that the revolution was founded on. - [Beth] David not only
becomes a revolutionary, he votes for the beheading of the king. We're talking about an artist who was very politically engaged. - [Steven] And this
painting becomes an icon for the revolution. - [Beth] When I look at
this painting, I sense that patriotic fervor that
must have been so palpable in the early years of the
revolution when people were able to rise up against
the abuses of a monarchy and to begin to imagine
a republic for France. (mellow piano music)
