The Revolt of Cairo
The Revolt of Cairo is an 1810 history painting by the French artist Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson.
Description
It depicts a scene from the Revolt of Cairo that took place on 21 October 1798 during the French [invasion of Egypt and Syria|French Invasion of Egypt] under General Napoleon Bonaparte. An uprising by the inhabitants of French-occupied Cairo was ultimately suppressed after two days of fighting. Girodet portrays the scene on a large-scale, featuring a ferocious clash between melange of bodies. At the front is a French hussar charging on foot against a group of Mamelukes and Bedouin. Another hussar's severed head is held aloft. Stylistically it shows the influence of both Romanticism and Jacques-Louis David's Neoclassicism.Napoleon, now Emperor of France, commissioned the work in 1809 for a fee of 12,000 Francs to hang in the Tuileries Palace in Paris. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1810 at the Louvre. Today it is in the collection of the Palace of Versailles.