Powerpoint lecture presentation

1. Romanticism in France
Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa

2. Eugene Delacroix,
Massacre at Chios, 1824
Louvre
In 1824 Eugene Delacroix submitted a monumental
canvas to the Salon representing the Massacre at
Chios

3. Eugene Delacroix, Massacre at Chios, 1824
Louvre
It was different from his earlier painting of the Death of
Sardanapalus because it represented a contemporary
event, rather than a story from ancient history

4. Eugene Delacroix, Massacre at Chios, 1824
Louvre
And it was different from the Classically-inspired
subjects that were normally shown at the annual Salon,
because it showed “victims” of a tragedy rather than
“heroes” in control of their own destiny

5. Eugene Delacroix, Massacre at Chios, 1824
Louvre
The painting depicts Greek families awaiting death or
slavery during the Greek War of Independence from
the Ottoman Turkish Empire

6. On the lower right, a small child struggles to suckle the breast of his dead mother,
while on older emaciated woman looks off into the distance for some sign of hope

7. In the center, a wounded Greek man leans against his wife, who leans on his shoulder
in exhaustian

8. Meanwhile, a Turkish soldier on horseback attacks two women with his sword, while a
scene of slaughter takes place in the background

9. The exotic setting and sadistically violent theme recalls Delacroix’s earlier Death of
Sardanapalus, but the story is set in the “here and now” rather than an imagined past

10. It is like the news photographs that we see today of tragic events unfolding across the
globe
A man with the body of his infant after the child was pulled from the rubble of destroyed buildings in Aleppo in July. CreditAmeer Alhalbi/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images

11. Eugene Delacroix, Massacre at Chios, 1824
Louvre
As Dr. Bryan Zygmont writes, this “ripped from the
headlines” approach attracted many Romantic artists,
who wanted to explore subjects that were more
relevant to modern times

12. Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa is an example of this “ripped from the
headlines” approach

13. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
Painted on a grand scale (16 feet tall, by 23 feet wide), The painting depicts an
event that occurred on July 2 1816, and was widely reported in the press

14. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
A French ship on its way to Senegal ran aground, largely as a result of the ship’s
commander who was a Royal appointee and was incompetent

15. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
There were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all the passengers, so the
captain and his men built a makeshift raft which they towed behind the lifeboats --
but once they set out, the Captain ordered that the rope be cut, and the
passengers on the raft (150 people) were set adrift

16. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
For 10 days they endured storms and starvation, and reverted to the most primitive
means of survival: many died of starvation, some were murdered, and some were
killed by sharks; there were even reports of cannibalism, as the desparate victims
struggled to alive; in the end, only 15 of the original 150 people survived

17. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
Gericault portrays the dramatic moment when a rescue ship is spotted on the
horizon

18. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
The figures are arranged in a pyramid, and they surge in unison upwards towards
this tiny beacon of hope

19. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
At the apex of the pyramid is an African slave waving a tattered flag; Géricault was
a supporter of the Abolitionist Movement, and his prominent placement of a black
skinned figure in the picture signaled his political views on the subject

20. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
The raft is crowded with dead and decaying bodies, rendered with
remarkable realism

21. To prepare for the painting Géricault consulted a published account written by two
survivors, and he even built a makeshift raft in his studio, based on a published
illustration

22. He visited the local morgue to study cadavers and brought body parts home to
study them as they decayed

23. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
When the work was exhibited at the Salon of 1819 it met with a mixture of praise
and criticism

24. Painted on the scale of “history painting” the picture did not meet expectations of
what a history painting was supposed to look like

25. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
It didn’t represent a story from the mythology, or the bible, or the Classical past, but
instead represented a contemporary event that everybody had read about

26. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
And it did not present virtuous heroes to look up to, but instead confronted viewers
with the hideous facts of human barbarity – from the Captain who heartlessly
abandoned his duties, to the desperate passengers who resorted to cannibalism
for survival

27. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
Critics were also put off by the picture’s realism; while the magnificently
muscled figures recall the ideal bodies of Michelangelo, the gruesome
depiction of lividly tinted corpses was shocking to audiences accustomed
to a more refined style of idealism

28. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
As one critic complained: "Monsieur Géricault seems mistaken. The goal
of painting is to speak to the soul and the eyes, not to repel."

29. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
Like Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus, Gericault’s painting was the opposite of
Neoclassicism

30. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
Rather than celebrating human reason, virtue, and nobility, this painting was a
passionate indictment of social injustice, and of man’s inhumanity to man

31. Theodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819
16’ x 23’ Louvre
In Romantic paintings, the Neoclassical “hero” who controls his destiny has been
replaced with tragic “victims” of forces that are beyond human control