Artwork Page for The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes

Details / Information for The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes

The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes

c. 1800

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson

(French, 1767–1824)
Culture
France, late 18th, early 19th century
Medium
Black chalks and white chalk with stumping and erasing on light brown wove paper
Support
Light brown wove paper
Measurements
Overall: 41.8 x 62 cm (16 7/16 x 24 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2000.71
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

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.
A horizontally oriented chalk drawing on light brown paper depicts seven muscular men gathered around an altar. At the center, a man faces away from us, raising a sword toward a dark, lightning-streaked sky. Others touch a bull's head on the altar while a figure on the right holds a bow aloft. Shaded with strong contrast, the composition features discarded shields and axes in the foreground and a distant walled city in the background.

The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes

c. 1800

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson

(French, 1767–1824)
France, late 18th, early 19th century

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