Oath Of The Horatii Analysis

The Oath of the Horatii is a piece art painted in 1784 by French artist Jacques-Louis is a great piece representing sacrifice and patriotism. This painting depicts the Roman legend the two warring cities of Rome and Alba Longa each sending three soldiers to battle instead of starting a full blown war and whoever wins is declared the winning city will be declared the victorious city. This painting shows the three Roman soldiers preparing to go to battle.

My initial reaction to this painting says that this painting has a sad, fearful but overall a brave tone. We see that there are three soldiers ready to go to battle and a man is handing them their swords. This painting makes me feel sorrow to the soldiers who can potentially die when going to conflict.
When you first look at this painting you look at the man in the middle with with swords.
The man is wearing a very bright red robe. Your eyes then move to the soldiers that are receiving the swords. After you see that, your eyes then drift to the sad people behind the man with the robe. Once all of the characters have been seen, your eyes then roam to the great architecture of a building that they stand upon. In this piece we see three soldiers wearing battle equipment and another figure holding three swords out for them receive. The man holding the swords is a hairy man that is wearing a vivid red cloth. In the back we see three sad crying women wearing dresses, a young child being supported by a woman. The woman supporting the child is also holding a baby. This painting was made using oil on canvas which makes the colors blend together properly and adds smoothness to this
composition. The first thing that I think symbolic is the man giving out the swords looks like he may be a holy figure. We see the man is looking up at the sky holding out a hand suggesting that he is trying to pray to God that these soldiers thrive in battle. He also is wearing bright robes and has a light shining on his figure. This can suggest that the creation of man came from a God and he is trying to seek help just like in a father-son relationship. The man looking up at the sky could also represent the destruction of man. Unlike the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods may be trying to get man to destroy themselves by going to battle to each other. Maybe the man looking up is trying to get the gods to try to stop this conflict. This is supported by the woman and children in the back because they are sorrowful due the soldiers almost definite slaughter. The soldiers in this painting can be representative of holy figures. There are three soldiers just like there were three righteous “fathers” after the deluge (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.) The number three is also holy in the sense that Christ was dead for three days and three nights before being resurrected. We can also see that are three women in the back. All of these three’s found in this painting are similar to all of the sevens found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Just like the seven in Gilgamesh, the number three must be a super holy number. When looking at this composition, we see the aging of a man. In the very right of the painting you see a baby and a child. We then see the three soldiers who are young warriors, and then a middle aged man who is full of wisdom. This shows how aging can not be fought with and humans can not fight mortality. This is one of the same themes we see in the Epic of Gilgamesh where Gilgamesh tries to find a way to gain immortality and realizes that death is unavoidable. I believe that the meaning of this piece is that if you truly love your country you have to be extremely patriotic about it, even if it requires self sacrifice.This sacrifice may bring you closer to death, but to this early society God has put them on this planet for a reason, and if nothing positive comes out of man God will be the one take us out of the world too.