The Oath of the Horatii

Three brothers stretch out their arms in a rigid salute toward the swords their father holds aloft, swearing to fight and die for Rome, while at the right their women collapse in grief, already mourning. Jacques-Louis David carves the scene in stark light and hard, sculptural lines, virtue and resolve set against private sorrow. Now in the Louvre, the Oath of the Horatii became a manifesto of Neoclassicism and, on the eve of the French Revolution, a rallying image of stern patriotic sacrifice - duty to the state above all personal feeling.