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Description |
Raft of the Medusa is the best-known work of the French painter Théodore Géricault, one of the most influential artists of the 19th-century Romantic movement. The artist’s choice of subject matter and artistic approach were unprecedented and when exhibited at the Salon of 1819, the painting provoked a storm of controversy. The scene is based on the scandalous Medusa affair; while transporting colonists and soldiers to Senegal during the summer of 1816, a French ship, the Medusa, ran aground on a reef near the west coast of Africa. As there were only enough lifeboats for half of the passengers, 150 people (consisting of lower class colonists and low-rank soldiers) were forced onto a makeshift raft made of wood from the ship. When the raft was finally spotted after twelve days of drifting, there were only fifteen survivors. The incident evoked great outrage against the government when it was discovered that the captain, whose incompetence caused the disaster, was an unqualified political appointee. Géricault presents the wretchedness and emotion of the tragedy in his depiction of the weakened, desperate survivors who frantically summon their remaining strength to flag down a distant ship on the horizon. At the time this work was produced, large-scale canvases were reserved for historical/mythological subjects or, in a few cases, propagandistic representations of modern events involving the wealthy and powerful. The Medusa affair met neither of these criterion and Géricault’s choice to produce a monumental painting depicting a contemporary incident involving members of the lower classes was quite unusual. Géricault’s unique style combines elements from Neoclassicism and Romanticism with realistic details that were based on his personal examination of corpses, the ocean, a model of the raft, and interviews with the survivors. He follows the official Academic style in his use of a subdued palette and linear brushwork, and the inclusion of semi-and-fully-nude idealized, brawny figures. Yet, the dynamic composition, dramatic lighting, and dramatic emotionality make this work a Romantic masterpiece. The survivors and corpses are chaotically arranged along a diagonal axis that begins with the a pitiful father clasping his dead son in the lower left, and culminates with the raised black man waving a piece of cloth toward the distant ship in the upper right. The artist chose the most dramatic moment, with a ship just barely visible in the distance, to capture the air of misery and death, mixed with a faint glimmer of hope. The foreshortened raft and figures project into the spectator’s space, enhancing viewer involvement and the emotional impact of this terrible scene. While Géricault’s career was cut short by an early death, his exciting, innovative style exemplified the Romantic spirit and influenced many contemporary as well as later artists. The "Raft of the Medusa" exposes the principles of romantic painting in its anti-classical forms and political commentary. The moment captured depicts the victims of the French vessel "Medusa" who had been cast off as the expendable underprivileged class. Gericault carefully arranged this enormous work such that a diagonal line of motion reached from the bottom left up to the top right where one survivor desperately waves a shirt for a potential rescue by a ship in the distance.; While transporting colonists and soldiers to Senegal during the summer of 1816, a French ship, the Medusa, ran aground on a reef near the west coast of Africa. There were only enough lifeboats for half of the approximately four hundred passengers. One hundred and fifty people (consisting of lower class colonists and low-rank soldiers) were forced onto a makeshift raft constructed from parts of the dilapidated ship that was so over-crowded that it was half submerged beneath the water. Men in the lifeboats vowed to tow the raft to shore, but they soon severed the ropes and left the raft behind in order to preserve their own lives. The raft’s passengers drifted for twelve days, enduring starvation and thirst, before being rescued by a search boat, the Argus; however, by that time, only fifteen people were still alive. In France, the horrendous affair gained widespread attention when accounts of survivors were published in newspapers and the raft was exhibited for the public. The incident evoked great outrage against the newly restored Bourbons when it was discovered that the captain, whose incompetence caused the disaster, had been appointed due to nepotism by high-ranking government officials despite a lack of qualifications. For those opposed to the government, the raft of Medusa symbolized France’s present condition, as a country floating aimlessly due to a lack of capable leadership. |
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Source |
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 210- 214; Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th ed., vol 2 (Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005), 832-833; Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2003, “Géricault, (Jean Louis André) Théodore” |
