Oath of the Horatti is an oil painting produced in 1784 by French painter Jacques Louis David.
Oath of the Horatti is considered as one of the best-known paintings in the Neoclassical style by Jacques Louis David.
The picture depicts a scene of a dispute between two warring cities from a Roman legend, Rome and Alba Longa stress the importance of self-sacrifice, masculine and patriotism for one’s country. The history tells us that instead of sending their armies to war the two cities agree to choose three men from their own each city, the man who won the fight will be regarded as the victorious man and victorious city. So, three brothers from a Roman family (namely the Horatii) agreed to fight with the three brothers from a family of Alba Longa (namely the Curiatii) resulting from the winner by the end of the war. The three brothers of Rome, willing to sacrifice their lives are shown in the picture, saluting their father who holds their swords out for them.
This painting of Edouard Manet was inspired by the previous work of Titan in Venus of Urbino and the Goya’s in La Maja Desnuda. The idea of using a black servant who brought flowers was already covered by Ingres in many of his paintings. In Titian’s painting, Venus was also a prostitute who was directly looking at the viewer. The idea of the nude provoked several violent reactions and a scandal at the Paris Salon.
In 1863, Olympia made even bigger controversy than Edouard Manet another painting The Luncheon on the Grass which also created many controversies. Several termed the work of Manet to be vulgar. They wanted the canvas to be destroyed but the government took precautions. Edouard wanted to tell the truth to the people through his paintings, he hated lies
The work can be viewed at Louvre in Paris.