 |
| Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa 1818-19 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa (detail) 1818-19 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa (detail) 1818-19 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa (detail) 1818-19 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa (detail) 1818-19 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
Current News
The Medusa was a French frigate that sank in 1816 off the coast of Africa. The crew managed to improvise a raft, but nearly all the sailors were dead before help could reach them. The dead and dying, many nude, form a pyramid atop which two survivors wave rags to signal a tiny ship barely visible on the horizon. One of the dead, abandoned, is about to slip into the water. The raft itself appears functional, with mast, sail, and rigging – a monument to the collective passion for survival. Near the center of this tableau, a philosopher is lost in contemplation. Is he not perhaps the father of the beautiful adolescent who will be swept away by the next wave?
Categories
In the past, two tiers of painting were recognized. The first was the noble one, history painting, originally religious in scope, representing sacred narratives; then secular ones drawn from Greek and Roman history and mythology; and finally contemporary events, chiefly glorifying sovereigns and their victories. From the French Revolution onwards, artists like Jacques-Louis David began to glorify powerful modern characters other than kings and emperors. The second tier, which might be called "subordinate painting," has also been called "genre painting" – portraits of the bourgeoisie, or even of the low-born; representations of animals, flowers, objects, landscapes. In large studios, such as that of Rubens, specific assistants would work exclusively at executing this or that category of detail.
With The Raft of the Medusa, genre painting has engulfed history painting. Extolled here are the sailors, ordinary human beings overtaken by catastrophe. Only a few would escape alive. Those few would then tell the story – a story without which the canvas could never have existed.
Tone
This illustration of a present-day newspaper item set out to rival in dignity the more conventional history painting that survived in academies and at the Salons until the 20th century. For one thing, Géricault designed it as among the largest canvases produced in the long course of western art. On that basis alone it at once claimed epic stature. But the subject was an epic misfortune, void of a hero, void of a savior. There are none but victims, whose ingenuity, tenacity and courage made undifferentiated heroes of all. If traditional nobility is represented anywhere, it rests in the presence of the brooding philosopher dwelling on the randomness of destiny, where some perish even as hope springs up in others.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)
 |
| Renato Guttoso after Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa 1955 oil on paper, mounted on canvas Newark and Sherwood Museum, Nottinghamshire |