Detail View: The AMICA Library: The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes
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AMICA ID:
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CMA_.2000.71
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AMICA Library Year:
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2001
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Object Type:
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Drawings and Watercolors
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Creator Name:
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Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, Anne-Louis
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Creator Nationality:
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European; French
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Creator Role:
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artist
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Creator Dates/Places:
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1767 - 1824
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Biography:
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On the advice of his architecture instructor Étienne-Louis Boullée (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 (Musée 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.
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Gender:
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M
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Creator Birth Place:
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Montargis, Loiret, 29 January 1767
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Creator Death Place:
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Paris, 9 December 1824
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Creator Name-CRT:
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Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
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Title:
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Le Serment des sept chefs devant Thèbes
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Title Type:
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Foreign
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Title:
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The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes
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Title Type:
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Primary
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View:
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Full View
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Creation Date:
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c. 1800
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Creation Start Date:
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1795
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Creation End Date:
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1805
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Materials and Techniques:
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black and white chalk with stumping
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Classification Term:
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Drawing
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Dimensions:
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Overall: 41.8cm x 62cm
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AMICA Contributor:
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The Cleveland Museum of Art
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Owner Location:
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Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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ID Number:
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2000.71
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Credit Line:
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Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
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Inscriptions:
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The number 29 (est.) is inscribed along the bottom edge in graphite (over black chalk?)
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Rights:
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Context:
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Anne-Louis Girodet was one of the most important pupils of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Although Girodet became a major figure in the neoclassical movement, his originality as a painter marked a significant break with his master and pointed ahead to the romantic trends developing in European art in the early 19th century.This subject of this drawing comes from the Greek playwright Aeschylus's tragedy of the same title. The play recounts the war between the cities of Thebes and Argos, brought about by a conflict between rival sons of King Oedipus. The passage in the play that inspired Girodet describes seven warriors from Argos, each an army leader, who together "slaughtered a bull over a black shield, and then touching the bull's gore with their hands?swore an oath" to defeat Thebes. The drawing emphasizes the drama of this moment, with the idealized nude soldiers focusing their physical energy on the bull in a unified gesture, while also turning to the statues of the gods of war, Ares and Enya, at the far left.
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Related Image Identifier Link:
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CMA_.2000.71.tif
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