Theodore Gericault's greatest legacy as an artist is undoubtedly his Raft of the Medusa, completed in 1819. The painting is the comprehensive result of experiments with a variety of forms and styles; it marks the apogee of Gericault's career. Beautiful and horrible, incidental and ubiquitous, monumental without a specific hero, The Raft of the Medusa was to the Salon of 1819 a complete paradox. The painting's first critics were divided in their assessments by their political and artistic ideologies. Some critics at the painting's initial exposition desired a picture more blatant in social criticism while others felt that the painting derided the very patriotism they felt needed protection. Artistically too Gericault's masterwork was found to be an enigma. He followed no artistic school coherently and attempted a fusion of sorts that was unprecedented in his day. While such efforts did not popularize him with his Romantic contemporaries, Gericault's Raft of the Medusa markedly began a new epoch in the evolution of art, that of innovation. Through his unique amalgamation of subject matter, contradictory styles, and the universality of his theme Gericault has produced in The Raft of the Medusa an integral part of art histo
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Of the one hundred and fifty, only fifteen would survive the ordeal. The greater truth was a facet of humanity that is inherent in every generation, an aspect that arouses empathy and compassion because all humans have felt a shade of it at one time or another. In avoiding the signs and slogans of his day, Gericault obscured the polemic point of the painting (Eitner 52).
Though initially Gericault may have been enticed by the political controversy of his subject, the theme of the painting did not equate that theme a polemicist would have chosen (Eitner 52). " While such appraisal mirrors the original criticism royalists conferred upon the picture, it does not account for The Raft of the Medusa's evolution of subjects that Lorenz Eitner reports Gericault discarded before finally settling on what was the least offensive, The sighting of the Argus (23). The fact that Gericault sought a government prize for the Medusa also suggests that he did not anticipate any governmental opposition from its officials or staunch supporters (Eitner 53). Here Gericault notably deviated from the conventional styles extant and, in doing so, emerged with a style uniquely his own.
Bibliography
Eitner, Lorenz. The result was a masterful composition that reflects not only on the revolutionary mood of Gericault's time but on the transcendental element that pervades time itself. There they faced inclement weather, mutinous occurrences, the effects of starvation, and cannibalism. The unbending adherence to his own theory, theme, and principal has allowed Gericault to secure for himself a place in history that will not easily be forgotten. For over two weeks the men were at sea.
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