Page "Jacques-Louis David" Paragraph 6

In Rome, David painted his famous Oath of the Horatii, 1784.

In this piece, the artist references Enlightenment values while alluding to Rousseau's social contract.

The republican ideal of the general will becomes the focus of the painting with all three sons positioned in compliance with the father.

The Oath between the characters can be read as an act of unification of men to the binding of the state.

The issue of gender roles also becomes apparent in this piece, as the women in Horatii greatly contrast the group of brothers.

David depicts the father with his back to the women, shutting them out of the oath making ritual ; they also appear to be smaller in scale than the male figures.

The masculine virility and discipline displayed by the men's rigid and confident stances is also severely contrasted to the slouching, swooning female softness created in the other half of the composition.

Here we see the clear division of male-female attributes which confined the sexes to specific roles, under Rousseau's popular doctrines.