Art Daily: Art Represented in Fiction: NBC's Gotham and David's Oath of the Horatti

In Titantic, Rose's paintings include Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, one in the ballerina series by Degas, and Water Lilies by Claude Monet, none of which were ever on the RMS Titanic. NBC's Gotham has done the same thing. Yes, Gotham is fictional and set in a fictional city but historically paintings are not interchangeable. So why use a well-known work of art? Do factual inaccuracies matter in fiction?

Finding it odd that the set decorators would use such a well know work of art to be owned by the Wayne family I wondered if I was the only one to catch the usage of Jacques-Louis David's Painting Oath of the Horatii on Gotham. During the first few episodes each time I saw it in a scene it pulled me out of the story because despite all the the Wayne's money I doubt they could ever really own this work. So I went searching for a reason.

I read a quote from ArchitecturalDigest.com that struck me as odd: "French artist Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii was reproduced for the Wayne Manor library. The painting was enlarged to show grandeur, and the battles are symbolic, as the family comes from a long line of fighters," says Baseman (1). Andrew Baseman is one of the set decorators and he also worked on The Americans. Is this a typo or a misquote? As far as I can surmise, David only painted one version of this scene and this version is 10.81 feet by 13.93 feet. This is much larger than the reproduction used in Gotham. There has to be something more to it, so I kept going.

I came across some discussions on reddit.com on the similarity of the theme in Oath compared to the Wayne family.

David's Oath of the Horatii depicts the period of the wars between Rome and Alba, in 669 B.C. It has been decided that the dispute between the two cities must be settled by an unusual form of combat to be fought by two groups of three champions each. The two groups are the three Horatii brothers and the three Curiatii brothers. The drama lay in the fact that one of the sisters of the Curiatii, Sabina, is married to one of the Horatii, while one of the sisters of the Horatii, Camilla, is betrothed to one of the Curiatii. Despite the ties between the two families, the Horatii's father exhorts his sons to fight the Curiatii and they obey, despite the lamentations of the women (2).

The figures Oath seem to attempt to hide tortured expressions and they twist away from us so their faces are partially obscured. We could say the same of Batman which young Bruce below will inevitably become. The theme of Oath communicates the message of men going to battle for the sake of loyalty, with possible sacrifice (3). Bob Kane created Batman in 1939 right before millions of Americans were going off to war in Europe. Both demonstrate masculine self-sacrifice for one's country and patriotism.

To me factual inaccuracies matter but story should be the driving force. Oath is arguably one the most famous Neo-classical paintings but in this case Oath fits the architecture and decor. And while the size and ownership are in question I think the style and theme are right for Gotham and Bruce Wayne.