Which French painter painted 'The Death of Socrates' in 1787 and 'Leonidas at Thermopylae in 1814?
Leonidas at Thermopylae Leonidas at Thermopylae Leonidas at Thermopylae is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Jacques-Louis David. The work currently hangs in the Louvre in Paris, France. The massive painting has the dimensions of about thirteen feet by seventeen and a half feet and was completed in 1814. The convoluted piece took David almost fifteen years to complete, with him separating his work into two periods from 1799 to 1803 and 1813-1814. Leonidas at Thermopylae was purchased, along with "The Intervention of the Sabine Women", in November of 1819 for 100,000 francs by Louis XVIII, the king of France at
Leonidas at Thermopylae stand against the Persians who were invading the area. King Leonidas, the Spartan leader, “delayed the invasion of Darius I and the Persians…by sacrificing himself and his men to give the Greeks the time they needed to organize an ultimately victorious resistance” in the long run. While this act of bravery and sacrifice by King Leonidas and his three hundred soldiers proved to be a defeat at the time, it inspired David during France’s own internal war. When David painted "Leonidas at Thermopylae", France was experiencing the fall of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte. David felt that France