Study for "Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys"

Early in his career, before he became known as a painter of modern spectacles such as the ballet and the racetrack, Degas created historical scenes. This is a preparatory study for his Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys, taken from the legend of Lycurgus, leader of the Greek state of Sparta. Lycurgus wanted to build his state into an undefeatable power, so he insisted that adolescent girls as well as boys exercise and train: the boys would become soldiers, and the girls powerful mothers. On the right, a group of boys stretch, while two female figures stand across from them at left; one of the girls gestures provocatively toward her male counterparts, as if to draw them over to her side. It is possible that Degas represented a courtship ritual rather than a military preparation, for behind the girls a male and female couple embrace.