David, Oath of the Horatii

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25 m, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Musée du Louvre) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

[@smaakjeks]

Making art and knowledge immediately accessible like this, for free, is a true public service.

[@c_turtle]

Smaakjeks K Such generosity of knowledge is what the internet was purposed for. Thankful for Khan Academy and Smart History!

[@smaakjeks]

@Janina Cheesman No you didn't, you lying liar

[@rickrose5377]

Yes, but before the internet, art historians like Kenneth Clark and Robert Hughes did it in television shows and series produced for public television (e.g., 'Civilization', 'The Shock of the New').

[@Sasha0927]

This is amazing and worth seeing again. I do love the unity, strength, and sense of purpose in the pose of the brothers. I feel more determined just looking at them.

[@constantineh.4389]

The way the legs and feet are painted and the muscles are being showcased is incredible. I can feel their power, their masculinity, their believes that lead them to that point. The 3 brothers are looking straight to the swords, meanwhile their father looks somewhere higher. I believe he's looking to the future. And if you pay attention his one hand is wide open while the other one holds the swords really tight. I believe David wanted to express how an ancient Roman father was really proud of sending his sons to war (open hand), but still had some fear, regret in his action (hand holding the swords really tight). In addition to your point that the female characters have their eyes closed because their role in a Roman society was to raise the kids, look into the boys' education and take care of the house, you can see that one of the kids is starring at the men going to war in a very proud way. 4:25 I would never figure that out by myself. That's perhaps the most important part of the painting. Truly genius. Thank you smarthistory for yet another magnificent video!

[@Howard.Stern.]

This is easily one of the greatest paintings in history. No one can touch the Anglo Saxons when it comes to art.

[@Sam-dw6ro]

no dijo"pilluelo "

[@ireneultramarine244]

Anglo saxons? H u h

[@truenews8357]

@@Howard.Stern. Ever heard of the renaissance? All of this art is literally just a copy of Roman art which was a copy of Greek art. Not to mention this was painted in France. Not Anglo Saxon.

[@SmittenKitten.]

@@Howard.Stern. What a strange way to show you have issues...

[@NTRcoolness]

This content is truly great, thank you.

[@ashwinrebbapragada7626]

A masterful analysis of the Oath of the Horatii. Thank you.

[@user-py7wp6nw9h]

I go to Paris every year and every year I go to the Louvre (where this is ) . Funny part about David is that after the revolution, when Napoleon came to power, he switched sides so quickly. He easily went from kissing the behind of Louis 16th to the revolutionaries (like this and the death of Marat) and then Napoleon with his coronation in Notre Dame. I LOVE YOU GUYS and your channel and I go back all the way to 10 years ago and watch EVERYTHING you put out! Fantastic!

[@JaCo9800]

Note the use of colour in the clothes: it resembles the (then revolutionary) French flag.

[@shanport2004]

thanks for another great video.

[@nabielmohdhamzah9991]

Awesome content! This helps a lot for my class.

[@AndrewIsbell]

Great video, thanks!

[@revolutionariesoffreedom2374]

This reminds me of Saint Just or Eren Yeager or the French Revolution. As the painting shows, the oath of Horatii happens during the Rome monarchy, but the patriotic characters have Republican values : Patriotism, Citizenry, Determination, Civic duty, Etc. They are in contrast with the nobility, who prefers the blood of their families instead of the patriotic duty. The family between the 2 sides are linked with that noble blood, but divided by patriotic fervor. You have to understand also that French Revolution started as a constitutional monarchy when the absolute monarchy was overthrown. The constitutional monarchists were considered as revolutionaries at the beginning, while they became constitutional monarchists for the ideas of democracy and were temporary constitutional monarchists, some of them were pure constitutional monarchists such as Lafayette or philosopher Hegel who believed that Freedom and constitutional monarchy couldn’t be separated. Meanwhile the counterrevolutionaries were absolute monarchists, but they were infiltrated inside France because the pure constitutional monarchists couldn’t identify them and they only were waging war against them in the outside. But the counterrevolutionaries were conspiring with the enemies of revolutionary France in order to restore the absolute monarchy and return absolute power to the king. The king was seen as a revolutionary at the beginning, but he was too naive and was influenced by the Austrian queen of leaving France. But the king had to choose one of the 2 choices : Either support the people rights or the nobility rights, but he wanted to please everyone and so he was influenced by both the revolutionaries and the counterrevolutionaries and didn’t even know it. This led to his fall because he imposed his veto against the decrees of the French constitution of human rights in order to save the nobility privileges and an angry mob stormed his palace to force him to sign the constitution and remove his veto. Then he tried to save the privileges of the clergy because he was influenced by the pope, which was considered one of the responsables of the financial crisis… Tho he also wanted to please the people : he accepted the decrees on freedom of speech, freedom of religion and he voted in favor of the war between revolutionary France vs Austria, tho both France and Austria were mixed with nobility blood. Indeed the Austrian queen married the king so the war between the 2 sides would end. But Austria started the conflict by gathering its troops near the border of revolutionary France in order to overthrow the French constitutional monarchy and restore the absolute monarchy for the king and her wife. Tho the pope said he could not accept the constitution of clergy voted by the assembly, so the king didn’t know what to do and finally accepted to escape to Austria with the queen but he was caught. The revolutionaries, even the pure constitutional monarchists, temporary captured the king and guarded him in the Tuileries waiting for what will happen because they were scared that if the king succeed to escape, he could return back with an army of emigrate absolute monarchists and it could lead to chaos. This was a treason. And still the pure constitutional monarchists like Lafayette (hero of American and French Revolutions) invented an excuse that says that the enemies of the revolution have kidnapped the king but no one believed them. At the beginning, no one was Republican, even the jacobins and Robespierre were constitutional monarchists. And during the escape of the king, mobs arrived at the palace and protested in favor of the ideal of a Republic. General Lafayette, general of the revolutionary army sent a small army to convince the protestors to disperse, but then the Mayor of Paris (pure constitutional monarchist) ordered a shooting. Funny that the same mayor of Paris who first defied the monarchy by sitting in the king’s throne and made the oath of jeu de paume was the same dude trying to save this time the [constitutional] monarchy. This shooting against the Republican protest event will be called the champ de mars massacres. Eventually the jacobins will be furious at Lafayette and order his exile while the mayor of Paris will be gu*llotined. The painting urges you to make a choice, to either not sacrifice anything or to sacrifice what you have for the patriotic duty. These ideas of Honor from the Roman republic or the Greek democratic inspired Rousseau, a philosopher of the enlightenment to believe that way. Which will later inspire people such as robespierrre and saint just, which were readers of Rousseau

[@Reza090]

Thank you.

[@camaramarcelo]

Great! Thanks

[@cvgv9326]

Thanx a lot

[@abigaillizeth7395]

Very good.

[@gailrothschild1]

You guys are terrific

[@somerandomname3124]

Smarthistory, will you guys be at the Michelangelo exhibition at the Met during November? It'll have 150 works by him. Sorry to repeat the question.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Yes, we are looking forward to it.

[@somerandomname3124]

+Smarthistory. art, history, conversation. Oh cool, it has a few pieces by him I haven't seen by him yet so I'm really excited to be there too.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Its a great show.

[@gaelcordova7791]

Si

[@joshuhigashikata9201]

Hey i recognize your profile picture, it's Dio, isn't it?

[@CyberCheese392]

Nice, 4k quality.

[@kalinmir]

would you take a look at The Slav Epic please? these paintings are absolutely breathtaking as they tower over you (some of them are 6x8m) anyway keep up the good work :)

[@professorpick]

idk if this is relevant but the togas the brothers are wearing are the same colors of the French flag

[@inipassword8517]

The flag of Paris 😮

[@SuperGreatSphinx]

PAX THE GODDESS OF PEACE

[@harshilpujara_]

I fi want to summarize this video with its meaning!! How can I summarize it as having a greater and a deeper meaning??

[@ethanmcbee9556]

Is this a reupload?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

We remade the video from scratch with a new audio recording we made at the Louvre last month and new high resolution photos we took while there. The old video was was made in 2011. We are slowly replacing the oldest content.

[@ethanmcbee9556]

Smarthistory. art, history, conversation. Awesome. Thanks for all the amazing content!