Davids Oath of the Horatii and Hogarths Rakes Progress - Essay Example

David’s Oath of the Horatii looks like a scene out of Roman history. Three young Romans swear allegiance to Rome and their family in this portrait. The crying women represent Horatii women that are either sisters to the enemy or engaged to the enemy. The men act on their allegiance alone, while the women listen to their hearts. This painting was completed several years before the French Revolution, but the painting was a protest of the politics of the time. Aristocrats were blindly following the French monarchy, but businessmen and the poor were acting on their hearts. Blind loyalty only leads to destruction, just like the soldiers and just like the French monarch.

Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress is a series of eight paintings. The titles are The Heir, The Levee, The Orgy, The Arrest, The Marriage, The Gaming House, The Prison, and The Madhouse. Each one of these paintings tells a story about the heir. He takes his inheritance and squanders it away. Eventually, the heir ends up in the asylum. The moral of the story is if a man does not work and earn their money it is not as valued. Inherited money is easily squandered. Once the heir was led astray with an abundance of money, his life went downhill due to the vices money can buy. If he would have earned his money, maybe he would not have so easily parted with it.

The similarities between David’s Oath of the Horatii and Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress are the presence of classes and a message against the wealthy. A ruling class, lower class, military class, man class, and women class were present in both of these men’s works. While David might not have shown the classes side by side, or only a man and women class, the implied classes were present. Hogarth painted different classes and even contrasted them. For example, the madmen at the asylum and the woman dressed in high fashion showed the contrast between rich and poor. Both David and Hogarth showed the vices of the wealthy. David showed the blind loyalty vice of the aristocratic Horatii and every other vice of the heir in Hogarth’s paintings. Money is the root of all evil was the message conveyed by both of these paintings.

The differences in these paintings are fundamental. David was French, while Hogarth was English. While David created his social protest through a depiction of a Roman story, Hogarth’s painting was not as censored. Hogarth had the freedom to paint because the English monarchy did not fear criticism. David could not have painted about King Louis and Marie Antoinette leading blind aristocrats. David could not afford to have the King and Queen upset with him before the French Revolution. Different countries caused different techniques to be used in both artists’ work.

David’s Oath of the Horatii and Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress both are effective social and political protests of the time. David was protesting the lavish spending of the French aristocracy. Hogarth was protesting the wastefulness of individuals inheriting money without having to work for it. Although David was French and Hogarth was English, both were protesting their environments at their own time and place.