The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 8, 2025

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
Black chalks and white chalk with stumping and erasing on light brown wove paper
Overall: 41.8 x 62 cm (16 7/16 x 24 7/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2000.71
Location: Not on view

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.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” October 6, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. Mentioned: p. 1 archive.org
    Foster, Carter E. ""Magnificent Seven." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 41, no. 2 (February 2001): 4-5. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 4-5 archive.org
    Bellenger, Sylvain, ed. Girodet, 1767-1824. [Paris, France]: Gallimard, 2006. Reproduced: p. 424, cat. 100
  • Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes|url=false|author=Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson|year=c. 1800|access-date=08 November 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2000.71