The Raft Of The Medusa

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  The Raft of the Medusa

  Theodore Gericault

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  The Raft of the Medusa

  Theodore Gericault

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  Joseph Mallord William Turner

  London

When he painted The Raft of the Medusa, Théodore Géricault was very deliberate in his message; this was not art for art's sake, nor some silly Rococo parlor trick - this was art for agitation purposes.A political man who had even joined the French Musketeers out of his idealism, Géricault was not one to shy away from what he believed in. This was met with a mixed reaction from critics and the French public alike, and the painting even now in its violence and heartbreak cannot help but make modern audiences shudder in its powerful presence.Contemporary reception: First exhibited under the more generic title of Scene of Shipwreck at the Paris Salon in 1819, there was no confusion in the contemporary viewers' minds as to what the real subject matter was. The events of the Medusa were fresh in the Parisian collective consciousness.Although classically idealized visually, the painting was fairly explicit in subject matter for the era. Particularly after the cold rationalism and clean lines of Neoclassicism, it was meant to shock. Critics took the bait, either responding to the work with lavish praise or infinite detriment.One polarizing element was the inclusion of a black man holding the flag that could bring about their salvation. This was Géricault's personal statement on the abolitionist movement. Political digs like these were what kept the public talking.London reception: A highly sensitive man, Géricault was so exhausted after the initial showing of his masterpiece that he became a hermit. Eventually though, he would reemerge to try his statement on a new audience.The piece was a great success in the Salons of London when Géricault took it on tour in 1822, after he had recovered from the mixed reviews in Paris. It reverberated with fellow Romantic artists such as J. M.W. Turner as well as the critics of the era.Modern day reception: This pivotal work of the Romantic era is still considered a masterpiece, now more than ever.As one critic, Kenneth Clark states, The Raft of the Medusa "remains the chief example of Romantic pathos expressed through the nude; and that obsession with death, which drove Géricault to frequent mortuary chambers and places of public execution, gives truth to his figures of the dead and dying. Their outlines may be taken from the classics, but they have been seen again with a craving for violent experience. " Indeed in a modern society that relishes images of realistic violence, the painting takes on a new validity.