Member Dismemberment - Oath of the Horatii
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Member Dismemberment
A Look at Limbs
Curated by Kate Sims
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| David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784 |
“[The arts] should help to spread the progress of the human spirit, and to propagate and transmit to posterity the striking examples of the efforts of a tremendous people who, guided by reason and philosophy, are bringing back to earth the reign of liberty, equality, and law. The arts must therefore contribute forcefully to the education of the public... The arts are the imitation of nature in her most beautiful and perfect form... Those marks of heroism and civic virtue offered the eyes of the people [will] electrify the soul, and plant the seeds of glory and devotion into the fatherland.” Goldwater, Artists on Art
David’s Oath of the Horatii illustrates a scene from Roman Legend where two competing cities go to war with each other. Three brothers from the Alba-Longa family plan to fight three brothers from the Horatti family. Each of the brothers is willing to give up his life as the last male standing wins the war for his city. The painting can be divided into three sections. The males do not show emotion with their faces, but rather with their arms. The brothers, who eagerly ask for their father’s blessing, jut their arms forward, mimicking the swords and cascading upward, revealing complete confidence in the situation. Their father, raises the swords with arms spread toward the heavens. He is asking God to look over his sons as they go to war, as well as offering his sons as a sacrifice to the city.
On the other hand, the sisters and mother are holding their heads in their hands or dropping their arms to their sides. Greif has overtaken their bodies and literally immobilized them. The women are the only ones allowed to feel emotion because they do not have heroic responsibilities. The stillness of these characters against a plain dull setting elevate the importance of the situation. The limbs in Oath of the Horatii display the mental and physical differences between men as the tragic heroes and women as the weaker sex.
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