Oath of the Horatii Jacques-Louis David1786

Oath of the Horatii Jacques-Louis David1786

You will document only the image. Citation should be MLA format.

All of the words in the essay should be your own original thoughts and observations.

No external research is allowed.

Humanities Essay Outline

I Introduction:

* Name and Date of the artwork: Oath of the Horatii 1784

* Name of the Artist: Jacques-Louis David

* Location of the work (e.g., museum name): Musée du Louvre, Paris,

* Thesis Statement: What message is the Artist trying to send?  Love and Patriotism

II Body Point:

Discuss one specific Visual Vocabulary term. * Lines

*Describe how the term works inside the image. The women have curved lines and the men have straight lines.

*Analyze how the term impacts the image.  * The curved lines means that the women are soft and passive.  You can see the sadness/anguish in their faces and see their emotion with their body language.  It looks like they’re coming to terms with the reality of war.  The men have ridged lines which depict strength and bravery.

III Body Point:

* Discuss another specific Visual Vocabulary term:  Geometric shapes

* Describe how the term works inside the image.  the most noticeable triangle is created by the legs of the man on the left.  That shape is then echoed in the legs of the two brothers behind him as they all stand beside each other. Other triangles are on the right side, the two leaning women’s bodies falling into the shape.

* Analyze how the term impacts the image. The shape of the triangle goes along with the theme of threes in this painting.  Three brothers, three women, three arches, three swords and three points of a triangle.

IV Conclusion:

* Conclude by rephrasing your thesis:  Love and life will be lost, but there’s nothing more important than to fight and die for your country.

* Discuss why the image is important to you.  Given that I have also gone off to war, I understand how multiple emotions can be present in the same painting. . I was attracted to the sense of duty/patriotism that the brothers show and I was moved by the emotions the women’s faces/posture depicts.