On Monday, April 8th, we continued our talk about Neoclassicism. I’d like to discuss three works that I believe reflect Romanticism as a whole: The Death of Marat, by the artist of Jacques-Louis David, Antoine-Jean Gros’s Napoleon at Jaffa, and Théodore Géricault’s, The Raft of the Medusa. Toward the beginning of class we discussed The Death of Marat, by the artist of Jacques-Louis David. The simple background and overall subject of the painting is minimalistic. The portrait portrays a contemporary event, serving as a memorial “to Marat” (as the side table reads). The portrait shows a revolutionary martyr, the body displaying similarities to Christ. The letter that the martyr holds describes a letter a woman writes in order to kill the martyr. As Professor Plesch states, this painting resembles a similar body presence (frail and deathly) like that of the Michelangelo’s Pietà and Titian’s The entombments of Christ. The paintings feel intimate and heroic, almost symbolizing Christ.
We continued class looking at Antoine-Jean Gros’s Napoleon at Jaffa, a scene depicting Napoleon visiting the people suffering from the plague in Jaffa. In the background of the work displays a French flag waving in the wind. The flag expressing that he has conquered the middle eastern place. The painting thus draws reference to David’s oath of the Horati and Theodore Gericault, Chagrin Chasseur, in terms of looking at a contemporary event and glorifying it. Gros’s work, as Professor Plesch states, appeals to the senses rather than the intellect. These artist during the Romantic period are especially trying to make you feel the scene’s emotions, both good and bad. The painting emphasizes death and suffering, ultimately displaying the importance of Napoleon’s act of being there. Gros does this by placing Napoleon in the center of the work, as the focal point. As Napoleon stands in the middle he dares to touch the disease of the plague. While not a king, the belief was that the King’s evil was able to cure the disease by touch. Gros’s work sparked controversy for depicting Napoleon’s despotic rule and inadequate medical services during the plague.
Finally, The Raft of the Medusa implicates a broader commentary on the practice of slavery. Géricault places at the top of the pyramid a dark-skinned figure, waving heroically and more visibly than anyone else, for the salvation of himself and the entire group. Another Black man sits on the raft, central to the entire painting, and a dead Black man lies sprawled across a white man’s lower body. The composition urges consideration not only of the immediate tragedy of “La Meduse” but also of the greater tragedy of slavery. The Raft of the Medusa thus remains perhaps the greatest representation of Romanticism.