[1][2] It depicts a scene from the Revolt of Cairo that took place on 21 October 1798 during the 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 beetween melange of bodies.

At the front is a French hussar charging on foot against a group of Mamelukes and Bedouin.

[3] Stylistically it shows the influence of both Romanticism and Jacques-Louis David's Neoclassicism.