- Jacques-Louis David
The Neoclassism movement reached
itsin the paintings of Jacques-Louis David and in the sculptures of Canova. David abandoned the
influence of Rococo with its elaborateness for the purity of classical art. In what has been
called "the archetypal picture of purist Neoclassicism," in Rome in 1784, David
painted The Oath of the Horatii, an arduous effort of classic reduction as
the painter reworked the foot of one Horatius twenty times.
In this
painting, David rejects the spectacular possibilities of the story in which the three brothers
Horatii engaged in a fight with the curatii of Alba in order to end a war between the two
states; instead, he creates his own spectacular movement: the swearing of a noble oath by the
brothers that they will dedicate their lives to their country. Certainly, in this painting, the
masculine force of the brothers is prominent and in contrast to the ladies' quiet and desperate
compliance with fate, some of whom are in the shadows and...
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