Analysis and History of Theodore Gericault's Painting, 'The Raft of the Medusa'

The distressed ship is the biggest in the painting, making it the center of the piece. The artist drew the two other ships small to make them seem distant and another small boat close to the damaged ship. The scale of the painting itself is pretty big; it’s 36 inches long and 53 inches wide.

The suffering is reflected in the face of every passenger and it is the main focus of the piece than any other element. The Raft's theme of human suffering evoked empathy and compassion, which helped project the image beyond any hopes the artist could have held for the piece. This predominant focus on the human condition allowed a stereotypical Romantic piece. Another artist famous for highlighting the human condition was Spanish-born, Pablo Picasso.

The artwork is portrayed as a naked man holding the head of Medusa in his left hand and in his right hand he the sword that beheaded Medusa and he were wearing the cap of darkness and the winged sandles. It was all carved in marble. This sculpture was made by Antonio Canova, he was born in Passagno. This marble was carved in Rome in 1804-6.

In the time when the French salon would have been looking for a Rococo style painting of important figures and royalty to hang in their gallery they accepted Gericault’s work as it was an extreme change from the typical types of paintings they hung. It represented the nameless souls who fought to stay alive upon the raft. Jeffaris (2005) exclaims “This event was a political scandal - and Gericault's painting - an exposé - a 17th Century tabloid headline!”. They knew it would create a stir and grasp attention, and it has become iconic for the the way in witch it broke traditions. This event had a huge effect publicly because of the fact that the lower ranking people were left behind to die while the wealthier and more important people escaped on life rafts. This is quite metaphorical of the political situation in France in this period (after revolution) as the wealthy got wealthier and the poor were left to starve and die. Its ironic that this painting of such a horrible event was such a symbol of hope for the lower class of France at the time. It showed the strength of the weak and poor, it showed that the lower class had the strength to survive even after the wealthy had taken everything and left them to die. Giving hope to the lower tier of society that anyone can make it regardless of their status. From the description of Medusa (n.d.) the raft of the medusa was “Intended as a political statement about the disorderly state of the French

This painting by Leonardo Bazzaro symbolizes the poem in a way that no other painting can do, the pain and despair that goes into every word of the poem is reflected on the faces of those on the canoe in the painting. It brings in all of the aspects of the highs and lows of each stanza. They are taking a moment, a precious heartbeat of their time while the sun slowly sets into the horizon to think, to say a prayer. As the woman bows her head to take a moment to collect and compose her thoughts, a flood of emotions rushes through her and she takes a minute to realize that even her darkest days she must praise. Even though

The piece introduces a moment of ecstasy created through an event of sexual tension. The strong presence in the figure begins to depict the emotions of the facial features in which is expressed through painted textures committing a exotic tension in the structure of Europa’s appearance. Emphasizing the emotion in the figure, Titian begins to express the sentiment through the creation of a dramatic presence. First with the colour scheme, he draw the attention to the figure with a light foreshadowing directly to Europa’s body accentuating the dramatization in the expression of the face. The appearance of the tense emotion conveys the illusion of fear, pain and distress causing a confusion of what seems to appear as sexual violence. According to A.W.Eaton the facial expression consists of exotic pleasure rather than an appearance devoted to despair and I quote “First, the painting eroticizes Europa’s rape by representing her as complicit and taking pleasure in the act. For instance, Europa’s facial expression does not obviously betray distress, fear, or pain, and is often interpreted as a look of ecstasy”(Eaton, P.162). Furthermore this quote explains that rather the expression interpreted from Europa was a moment of rapture or moreover an execution of enjoyment towards

The image shows a sailing ship, it could be an optimistic view of the painter expressing their particular direction of their goals and how we make choices in life. Or goals that are merely drifting away because it is difficult to get what we want out of life at times. Also sailing away could be a form of independence and freedom were we wish to break free from the constraints of everything we do in our daily lives. sailing on stormy waters depicts the difficulty of our choices and that things might be tough going forward. Or simply the strong desire to change life symbolizing the positive changes of our

Medusa means "sovereign female wisdom." In Sanskrit it's Medha. Medusa was originally a Libyan Goddess, worshiped by The Amazons as their Serpent-Goddess. She was considered the destroyer aspect of the Great Triple Goddess also called Neith, Anath, Athene or Ath-enna in North Africa and Athana in 1400. BC Minoan Crete. She can also be connected to Africa where she had a hidden, dangerous face, and her hair was represented as resembling dread locks. Libyan Amazons believed that no one could possibly lift her veil, and that to look upon her face was to glimpse one's own death as she saw yours.

A. The painting of Alcibiades on His Knees Before His Mistress was painted in French,

“A rugged young hunter in Winslow Homer’s painting is the main character. He stands motionless & his serious gaze looking down and his bent leg is on the root of a large, sawed-off tree stump. He is observing and describing the scene before him. He hunts a deer because he cannot survive without it. He will sell the skin and antlers. Rifle and hunted deerskin are slung over his shoulders, & antlers dangle from one hand. And he is also gazing at his dog who is excitedly jumping around

The article, “Gericult’s Severed Heads and Limbs: The Politics and Aesthetics of the Scaffold”, by Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer reasons that the purpose of Theodore Gericault’s paintings of severed limbs and decapitated heads was his way of criticizing 19th century policies about capital punishment.

The painting The ship of Patience was created by an unknown 18th-century painter in Cuzco, Peru. The purpose of the painting seems to demonstrate the movement and expansion of Christianity overseas. The striking angelic figure in the sky shows a clear contrast with the frightening devils on the ground. By labeling each figure and person the painter was able to create an easy visual image for the natives to learn from. Without knowing anything about Christianity the painting clearly has Jesus Christ in the sole center person of the painting. There aren’t just holy, famous people on the boat with him, there are people with diseases and those that look like workers. It is demonstrating the open and loving beliefs and image of Christianity.

These images pull at our insides to incite change based on feelings of disgust and horror that the painting invokes. The ship, placed at mid-level in the painting, still draws the viewer's attention, but does not invoke the same amount of sympathy. Yet, these conflicting points are relatively miniscule compared to the power of nature. This further points to the helplessness of human beings, regardless of race, in the face of nature, as nature triumphs over the greatest perceived powers of man. Man, being a part of nature though, contributes to the panoramic view of nature as a whole; there is beauty, horror, peace, chaos. Turner’s The Slave Ship effectively encompasses all of these facets, revealing nature as multitudinous and all-encompassing.

The beautiful painting is a visual treat to anyone laying eyes on it. The blue sky the wavy water the sailboats all are ironic to any coastal shore. The moon on the distance is an indication that it’s early dusk or dawn. The sea looks windswept but calm and clear rather than stormy and angry. The ship is setting out on a long journey but the butterflies are an indication to a positive spin on departure so it’s probably intended for people who have had or will have firsthand experience with departure and those emotions.

When I saw the painting for the first time it grabbed my attention. At first I thought it was the beautiful colors that attracted me to the painting, but it was more. In the picture the shadowy men look scared. They looked as though they were trying to run away from something and this lake that forms into this river that is surrounded by tall grass is the way out, or at least a place to hide until the coast is clear. During that time in my life I felt