Illustration Friday: Clandestine

One of my favorite paintings is Jacques-Louis David’s, Oath of the Horatii , 1784. The composition illustrates the story of three brothers swearing their allegiance to Rome, by taking a clandestine oath from their father to kill three of their cousins. The father in the middle acts as a bridge between the outside world and the world of the family, which is represented by the curvilinear shapes of the mourning women. Because of its depiction of dutiful patriotism, The Oath of the Horatii is often considered to be the clearest expression of Neoclassicism in painting. With acrylics, I've done my own color study of a small portion of the Oath of the Horatii painting.