Of Theodore Gericault's Artwork 'Raft Of The Medusa'

I think the artist is able to communicate the bad condition of the ship and its crew is in. The mood of the work is scary and gloomy. The design and intensity of the waves, the changing weather, and the ships in the ocean seem to make the scene come alive. It really conveys a since of naturalism in the painting the way it depicts the environment around the ship.

The left side of the painting includes American icons such as Steve Irwin, Prince, Abraham Lincoln, and the “army” being led by George Washington. This could symbolize the American lifestyle that focuses and is represented mainly by society's take on who is important to the culture. This is often popular or influential celebrities, iconic presidents and/or leaders such as Abraham

There are three main aspects of this painting, each representing a different aspect of society. The first and lower part of the painting shows the working class, gathered in desperate and impoverished lines. This shows the lack of compassion available in the American economy.

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

14. What immediate developments in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries might have influenced the cultural patterns depicted in these illustrations? How does the broad context of the Columbian exchange help you understand these painting?

It was painted and completed by Joseph Mallord William Turner in England around 1820 and is an oil on canvas painting created during the romanticism era. The story behind this piece is, when a slave ship set out on a voyage they would pack the ships full of slaves, and along the way the slaves would get sick and die so the crew would throw them over board to avoid paying cargo tax. In the painting viewers see a satanic sky and dark murky water with limbs sticking out of it (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The brush strokes are all sort of slanted down to the right and some are even curled to depict waves that look to be swallowing up the slaves as well as the ship. This painting is very sublime because it has beautiful colors and form yet the meaning behind it all is

context such as race and gender, and the history of the painting. In addition, I will be

This piece that I have chosen has many different identifications some may know it as “The Rising Up” some may know it as “The Revolt”. This painting was based on the boat that carried the slaves from one country to the next called the La Amistad. This painting presents the moment in the movie Amistad named after the boat, where the slaves were speaking in creole about how they were going to escape. Once they got the courage, they attacked the shipmates and demand the caption to take them back to Africa. This painting captures all of that.

For purposes of this analysis, the focus will be on the men on the boat. They are the most detailed elements of the image. The artist purposefully placed them standing rathe than nearly drowning and fighting for their lives for a reason. There are three men standing in the boat, two

The story symbolizes the courage to sacrifice own lives for the sake of the glory of their nations, and the painting later became an icon for the French Revolution (Harris & Zucker, n.d.). Liberty Leading the People (Delacroix,

the roles of those two important races in America of the time. The painting is related to the time of slavery (1619-1865) and the unequal positions between the Negros and whites. Finally, I have observed that the unknown painter detailed the whites’ men face very well, yet the black men and woman’s face appears faceless or without identification. This is a representation of the European view towards Negros as a uniform object or animal.

The effort put in the creation of the mural can be immeditley be conveyed by the precise details of all three natives on the boat. Furthermore, Anton’s style of simplicity by primarly painting in a one-dmesional plane, and using shadows and volumes with colors such as yellow, brown, gray, white, and red to evoke emotions is very apparent in this mural. Rather than focusing on the mural itself, the viewer is forced to anaylze the subject matter. In this mural the matter revolves around the death of almost 250,000 natives due to “general mistreatment, massacere, disiese, disposesssion, and other indigitinieites.” The mistreatment of natives throughout American history has always been problemtic. This mural once again remids indivudals how the land we are standing on was once theirs and setters took it away. In order to expand and grow as a nation, setterls took it the land, sometimes by brute force, from peaceful families like the one in the

Gericault’s painting was designed in a pyramid form, which comes full circle in the figure of the negro waving a cloth toward the boat seen in the distance. In any case, the composition of the painting gives such energy to the idea of hope among the wrecked survivors. The raggedy raft is displayed as unsafe as it rides the profound waves, while the men are rendered as shattered and in despair. One old man holds the cadaver of his child at his knees; another removes his hair in dissatisfaction

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

Théodore Géricault, a French painter born in 1791, also had a seminal influence on French Romantic art. (Ed I. C., 2009) His paintings contained abundant elements, such as violence, death and monomania, and all of these made his works both utterly compelling and horrifying. In 1812, he submitted his work—“The Charging Chasseur”, which celebrate the prowess of French military and admire Napoleon’s great power. Géricault then created his masterpiece—“The Raft of the Medusa”, which rose a sensation at the Salon in 1819. This is a history painting which is concerned the aftermath of a horrible shipwreck happened three years ago before Géricault made this painting. (Glover. M., 2011) In order to draw it perfectly, Géricault even prepared a tiny