ĭavid's The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799), Louvre, Paris. In 1813–14, when he finished the painting, European powers allied against the First French Empire were invading France to topple the emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, and David again found inspiration in the story of Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae. This act of bravery and sacrifice by King Leonidas and his three hundred soldiers inspired David as France waged its own campaigns against rival European powers that wanted to restore France's pre-revolutionary ancien régime. 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. This helped the Greeks make a better stand against the numerically vastly superior Persians, who were invading Greece. Thermopylae was chosen as an ideal location for waging a defensive action in view of its narrow passage through the mountainous geography. The setting is the mountain pass in which the Battle of Thermopylae was about to be fought, in 480 BCE. The crowded and theatrical scene that David depicts takes place in a time of war, seemingly in Ancient Greece from the Greek temple and temperate mountains in the background. David's pupil Georges Rouget collaborated on it. The piece depicts the Spartan king Leonidas prior to the Battle of Thermopylae. Leonidas at Thermopylae was purchased, along with The Intervention of the Sabine Women, in November 1819 for 100,000 francs by Louis XVIII, the king of France. David completed the massive work (3.95 m × 5.31 m) 15 years after he began, working on it from 1799 to 1803 and again in 1813–1814.

The work currently hangs in the Louvre in Paris, France. Leonidas at Thermopylae is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Jacques-Louis David. Painting by Jacques-Louis David Leonidas at Thermopylae

Jacques-Louis David by Maria Tsaneva