욕망하는 걸작: 자크 루이 다비드의 <호라티우스가의 맹세>

Abstract

Jacques-Louis David's The Oath of the Horatii, painted in 1785, has been widely regarded as the landmark piece to mark the advent of Neoclassicism. It deals with the story of the three sons of Horatius, heroes of the ancient Roman kingdom. The tale of the Horatii is based on the early Roman history written by Livy. Livy's history was dramatized by Corneille in the seventeenth century, and Corneille's play Les Horaces became extremely popular throughout the eighteenth century. The tale runs as follows. The three sons of Horatius were chosen to represent the city of Rome against the Curiatii, the three corresponding counterparts to fight for the neighboring city of Alba. The unexpected twist to the tale involves the tragedy that the two families were interconnected via marriage: one of the Horatii was married to a sister of the Curiatii, whereas their only sister, Camilla, was engaged to one of their enemies. The two parties fought to death with only one of the Roman combatants surviving. Thus Rome won the battle. The tale, nevertheless, had a violent twist to the end: the triumphant victor on his way back to Rome found his sister mourning her betrothed and slew her in patriotic rage. Their father, however, valuing loyaltiy to country above all else, sided with his son in front of Roman citizens and secured the son's exoneration. David's picture illustrates one imaginary moment in the story, the moment of taking oath to defend Rome to death, an episode which does not feature in any of the written sources. Traditional interpretations of this painting tend to regard it as the supreme embodiment of the doctrines of Neoclassicism and the philosophy of French state patronage system. The old views, however, are ill prepared to account for a recurrent pattern of inarticulate hostility toward David and his painting from those contemporary critics who were on the conservative side of the Academy of Painting and Sculture, which organized and managed the Salon exhibition where the picture was shown to the public at no cost. The painting's popular success at the Salon seems to them as something incomprehensible and vaguely threatening. What were they afraid of? What was the origin of their disagreement, their sense of crisis?Based on a close reading of contemporary art criticisms, this article seeks to chart the trajectory the painting has gone through. Revealing the unstable patterns and interplays between the ambitions of the artist and the ideological struggles among different interest groups, this paper argues for the significance of propaganda in the making and reception of a masterpiece and proposes the reconsideration of the painting within the framework of permanent dialogue between the circumstances it is viewed and the viewer's desires both tangible and intangible.