Hippocrates refusing the gifts of Artaxerxes

This 1792 canvas by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson sets its scene on the Greek island of Kos in Ancient Greece. According to the story the painting follows, the Persian ruler Artaxerxes I, then at war with the Greeks, asked the renowned physician Hippocrates to treat his plague-stricken troops. Hippocrates turned down every reward on offer, arguing that he would help no enemy while his own people were in danger, an act presented as a model of patriotism. The work belongs to the Neoclassical manner promoted by Jacques-Louis David, Girodet's teacher, and reflects the revolutionary climate in France, when praise of civic virtue was at its peak. It was shown at the Salon of 1814 in the Louvre in Paris, a hastily organised exhibition after Napoleon's fall in which several artists displayed earlier works. The painting is now held by the Museum of the History of Medicine in Paris.

Painter

Anne-Louis Girodet

Date

1792

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

99 × 135 cm

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