{
"data": {
"id": 161708,
"accession_number": "2000.71",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes, c. 1800. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767\u20131824). 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 2000.71",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes",
"creation_date": "c. 1800",
"creation_date_earliest": 1795,
"creation_date_latest": 1805,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, late 18th, early 19th century"
],
"technique": "Black chalks and white chalk with stumping and erasing on light brown wove paper",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "light brown wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Overall: 41.8 x 62 cm (16 7/16 x 24 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.418,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"width": 0.62,
"width_inch": 24,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "The number 29 (est.) is inscribed along the bottom edge in graphite (over black chalk?)",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 282301,
"title": "Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings",
"description": "Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2016-07-16T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
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"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Girodet found inspiration for this drawing in Aeschylus\u2019s 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\u2019s strong black outlines and idealized male nudes are characteristic of Neoclassicism\u2019s calculated restraint. Yet the flash of lightning and the warrior\u2019s impassioned expressions intensify the emotional and psychological content of the scene, anticipating the growth of romanticism in European art during the early 1800s.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79984786"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2000.71-the-oath-of-the-seve"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cRecent Acquisitions Press Release,\u201d October 6, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 1",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4354"
},
{
"citation": "Foster, Carter E. \"\"Magnificent Seven.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 41, no. 2 (February 2001): 4-5.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 4-5",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2001-02/page/n3/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Bellenger, Sylvain, ed. Girodet, 1767-1824. [Paris, France]: Gallimard, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 424, cat. 100",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.71",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2000.71/2000.71_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
"height": "613",
"filesize": "218183",
"filename": "2000.71_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2000.71/2000.71_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2316",
"filesize": "2709386",
"filename": "2000.71_print.jpg"
},
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"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2000.71/2000.71_full.tif",
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"alternate_images": [
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"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 161708,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1697,
"description": "Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767\u20131824)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "On the advice of his architecture instructor \u00c9tienne-Louis Boull\u00e9e (1728-1799), Girodet enrolled in the atelier of David (q.v.) in 1783 to study painting, working alongside other young artists like Gros (q.v.) and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar (1762-1834) who were also taught in David's neoclassical style. Girodet's early works display the influence of David in the linear and sculptural quality of his figures. After three consecutive years of competing for the Prix de Rome, he finally won at his fourth effort in 1789. Later that year the Revolution broke out in France and Girodet made numerous drawings of the fall of the Bastille. In 1790 he left for Italy where he stayed for five years. During that time his style changed and softened under the influence of the works of Leonardo (1452-1519) and Correggio (1489/94-1534). Girodet strove to be unique and original in his depictions and even went to great lengths to oppose David's neoclassicism. His new interest in atmospheric and light effects differed from that of his teacher. He made a name for himself at the Salon of 1793, with his submission of Sleep of Endymion (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris). After his return to Paris from Italy, Girodet became known as a portrait painter and accepted numerous commissions, but many of them were either late in delivery or never completed. Girodet's tendency to interpret commissions to prove his own originality often offended and alienated his patrons. He did not find official success at the Salon again until 1808 and produced little after 1815.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1767",
"death_year": "1824",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2000-09-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1795,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1800",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:24:19.070000"
}
}