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The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes
About the Artwork
Girodet found inspiration for this drawing in Aeschylus’s Greek tragedy Seven against Thebes. Dramatized with powerful physicality, seven warrior leaders from Argos raise weapons to the war deities Ares and Enyo at the far left as they immerse their hands in the blood of a sacrificed bull, and swear an oath to defeat Thebes. Girodet’s strong black outlines and idealized male nudes are characteristic of Neoclassicism’s calculated restraint. Yet the flash of lightning and the warrior’s impassioned expressions intensify the emotional and psychological content of the scene, anticipating the growth of romanticism in European art during the early 1800s.
Inscriptions
The number 29 (est.) is inscribed along the bottom edge in graphite (over black chalk?)
Exhibition history
Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767–1824)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Medium
- Black chalks and white chalk with stumping and erasing on light brown wove paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 41.8 x 62 cm (16 7/16 x 24 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 2000.71
More by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson in museum collections
Portrait of the Katchef Dahouth, Christian Mameluke
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson1804 · Painting
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011507
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