Corporality and Communication: The Gestural Revolution of Diderot, David, and The Oath of the Horatii

Abstract

This study examines a revolutionary stylistic development in late 18th-century French painting, in which an emphasis on corporal expression embodied in gesture dramatically replaced the prevailing aesthetics of physiognomy inherited from Le Brun. This development, adumbrated by Diderot in his devout desire for a “gestural sublime” in the visual arts, was realized by J.-L. David in The Oath of the Horatii of 1784-85, a painting that overturned the academic style of the 1770's. After the appearance of The Oath, critics, like the emulous artists, regarded corporal expression in its myriad aspects as the central ingredient in painting. This gestural revolution, embodied in The Oath, coincided remarkably with a new interest in the relationship between corporality and morality in the writings of various political, social, and scientific theorists of the time.

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Dorothy Johnson

Dorothy Johnson received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987. She has published articles in the Gazette des beaux-arts and Art History [School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242].