Jacques-Louis David: Le Serment des Horaces, 荷拉斯兄弟之誓, Louvre
《荷拉斯兄弟之誓》（法语：Le Serment des Horaces）是法国画家雅克-路易·大卫于1784年之作品。这是新古典主义的作品，亦是大卫的成名之作
画家重视建筑，借此表达理性。画中三兄弟在左面，父亲在中间，三兄弟的妻子及姐妹在右面。由于这是父权社会，画中的男人都没有表情。故事是讲述罗马与Alba国家的战争中，三兄弟向父亲立下誓言以表决心，他们的姐妹的丈夫亦要被他们所杀。画中男人手脚被画成直线，以表示爱国心，即国家的最高道德。画中女人则被画成弧线，与男人造成对比，为大事等待男人解决。作者以这幅作品教育国民，使艺术与政治拉上关系。此画以暗背景突出主题。定格的画面亦有助表现理性。此作品画于法国大革命前，表示效忠国家比效忠民族、神更重要。
这幅画有明显的新古典主义艺术之风格，采用了不少有特色的技术。画的背景十分暗，而人物则很明亮，令人物更突出。阴沈的颜色令背后的故事及其意义更为突出。画面构图有精密的部署，突出三位兄弟，及故事的刹那间。焦点鲜明，物象清晰，没蒙眬之意，与洛可可艺术有明显分别。笔触被隐藏，可见画家重视作品比重视自己之感受更多。定格之画面更能表现理性，与洛可可艺术相反。只有女性有表情，因为她们可用来表达感受，相反，画中男性没有表情，以表达严肃的英雄主义。这幅画表达了复杂的道德及故事，令此画被分类为新古典主义艺术。
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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 themeAccording 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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