Jacques-Louis David was born in Paris, on August 30, 1754, and died 77 years later in Brussels on December 30, 1825 (Roberts, 3). He was taught by Vein, one of the most known painters of the time (Friedlaender, 12). Many of his painting, including the two I have chosen, represent very emotional events that had happened during and around the time that he lived. David was able to capture these events on canvas and really bring out its pathos and emotion.

The two works of art that I am going to analyze by David are The Oath of the Horatii and The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons. I have chosen these painting because they are two of David’s most emotional pieces of work. These two paintings also have very deep historical meaning as they portray historical events.

The Oath of the Horatii was one of David’s earlier paintings. It is one of the two or three paintings of which he is best known for. In nearly any book on Jacques-Louis David you will find that The Oath of the Horatii is one of the first paintings to be described, as it is such a popular one.

He was inspired to paint this picture of Roman bravery when watching Horace, a play written by Corneille, while in Paris. He started painting it there in Paris, but, feeling he could only paint a picture of roman courage and bravery in Rome, he moved to Rome to finish the painting (Friedlaender, 15).

On the left side of the painting you see the Horatii standing side by side, mentally preparing for the fight against the Curatii. The Horatii are Roman male triplets while the Curatii are Alban male triplets. Rome and Alba are in a dispute. It had been decided that the battle that will commit between the Horatii and Curatii will settle the dispute between them (Bryson, 72).

The older man on the right, who is handing the Horatii the swords, is their father. You can see his left foot is placed in an uncertain position, and he’s leaning backwards in a kind of a slouch. This gives him a rather weak look. The Horatii, on the other hand, have very well described stances, feet squarely placed on the ground, their arms held out in oath. They have a look of bravery and valiance upon them. They are ready to take on the task set before them. Like most of David’s work, this is a very emotional picture. The father, to weak to fight, is about to put all of Rome in the Horatii’s hands. Their father, presenting his sons the swords is a symbol of power being bestowed from the father to the swords to the sons.

On the right, pushed to the side, you see two woman weeping, and, behind them, a nurse with children. The heroic masculine men on the left seem to contrast to the women. The women, according to David, do not support the Oath. The girl in white is a sister of the Horatii and is also engaged to one of the Curatii. She weeps because no matter what the outcome, she will lose one of them. The girl in brown weeps because she is the sister of the Curatii and the husband of a Horatii. She will lose someone also. The nurse is baby sitting the children of the Curatii sister and the Horatii husband (Bryson, 73). The Horatii, unconcerned with the lament of their own women creates a very masculine image. This is a picture of “Spartan and Roman heroism” (Friedlaender, 17).

The next painting I have chosen to analyze, The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, is a much more political image, yet still another very emotional one. On the left, sitting on the chair, is Brutus. According to Friedlaender, Brutus threw the monarchy out of Rome and replaced it with the Roman Republic. His sons then betrayed him and attempted to restore the monarchy to Rome. Trying to do the best for Rome, Brutus ordered his sons killed (Friedlaender, 18).

In David’s painting, the feet of only one of the dead sons is visible, the rest of the body is cut off by the left edge of the painting. He is being held on a stretcher, which in turn is held by what are probably servants. There seems to be a soft light across the body. I believe this is to help it catch the eye, as it is the main theme of the picture. It also helps separate the dead body from Brutus in front of it.

On the right you see Brutus’ wife and three daughters. The body was probably just brought into the room and the women seem to be showing their initial reactions. The wife is stretching her hand towards her son, lamenting of his death. She has a look of shock and horror upon her. The daughter on the left is covering her eyes. She can not even look upon the body of her brother. The second daughter on the right seems to have fainted from fright. The last girl in blue, on the right, is also clearly weeping. In short, all the girls are weeping.

Brutus, however, is clearly not weeping, like the rest of the family. He seems to be brooding in his own little corner. He looks as if he didn’t really want to kill his sons, but he felt he had to for Rome. The shadow that is cast over him helps to make him look gloomy and depressed.

The settings of these two painting I have found to be very similar. David put pillars in both his paintings, and in both paintings the back sides of the buildings are blotched out in darkness. He shows no back walls in either of these paintings. The backsides of the buildings seem to just “go on.”

In The Oath of the Horatii I noticed the legs and the arms of the solders are very muscularly painted, with definable muscles and veins running around the skin. In The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons there is only one man that has visible flesh: Brutus. He does not, however, have muscles or veins depicted on him. It makes me wonder if David changed his style a bit after the painting The Oath of the Horatii, or if he wanted Brutus to not be viewed as a man of war, but instead as a man of politics.

From the valiant Horatii preparing for a battle while a wife and sister weep in The Oath of the Horatii to the father who ordered his own son killed in The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, it is obvious that Jacques-Louis David’s was an awesome painter who really knew how to bring the emotion and pathos out in his paintings. Without painters like David we would not be able to view history with all the emotion as it was viewed by the people of that time – and that’s a valuable thing.

Works Cited

• Bryson, Norman. Tradition & Desire: from David to Delacroix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Friedlaender, Walter. David to Delacroix. Harvard University Press, 1952.
• Roberts, Warren. Jacques-Louis David: Revolutionary Artist. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989.