A Comparative Analysis of Gender Representation in Jacques Louis David’s “Oath of the Horatis” Painting

By adopting a critical approach, following the adaptation of the concept of gender on the Horatian oath board, this research uses the ideas of postmodern philosophers such as "Lacan", "Derrida" and "Hélène Cixous" and on the opposition of "man and woman" and the lowering of the position of "woman". It focuses on the visual language of David and aims to find out the power relations of the 18th century French patriarchal society, how it was manifested in the visual language of David and redefined and represented the gendered concept of "woman". This review; Using the four steps defined in the method of "Edmund Burke Feldman", first in the description stage, the verbal-narrative origin of the painting; That is, he paid attention to the play "Horas" and the book "The Beginning of Roman Civilization", then he addressed the visual origin of the painting, i.e. "The Oath of Brutus" by Gwynn Hamilton and the forgotten gesture of "Roman Salutation". In the second step, with formal analysis, it was found that the relationships of form, color and composition were also formed based on the originality of men and the marginalization of women. In the third and fourth steps, during the interpretation and judgment with a psychoanalytical transition, we found out about David's childhood, he lost his father in a duel, his mother abandoned him and his architect uncles took care of him. Misogyny and attention and emphasis on architecture. He also behaved as an extremist in the field of politics, but the separation of his wife and children and his imprisonment led to the transformation of his intellectual and artistic world As he presented the painting "Mediator of the Sabine Women" to his wife as an antithesis of the oath of the Horatis to appease him, and after that the anti-feminist emotions in his works subsided. The result of this critical reading showed that David's life and works of art, after a long idealistic peak, have a sudden descent that has placed him on the horizon of reality.