Essays on Gericault

When Jacques Louis David created The Oath of the Horatii, in 1784-1785, France was on the verge of the Revolution that would come just a few years later in 1789. David would play a role in it and was its ardent supporter (Tansey and Kleiner, 917). Enlightenment rose as a philosophical ideal that had an impact in art. It suggested that art should have a moral dimension and serve as a lesson to the viewer. At the same ...

Between Thomas Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa and Rosa Bonheur’s Plowing in the Nivernais, beyond its politics is an interest in presenting nature as an expansive force. Nature is not about clouds and hills, but in discovering the tone of a subject. The tone of The Raft is intricate and layered whereas The Nivernais is much more direct and explanatory in its reflection. How lighting is used described the paintings differently in their message ant their ideas about their shared country of France.

Both paintings were composed years after a revolution. The reseating of a monarch inspired The Raft, and ...

Theodore Gericault’s The Raft of Medusa is a canonical piece of art created in the early 19th century – in the wake of Romanticism in France. Romanticism was not a style, nor was it a manifestation of a singular idea. Instead, Romanticism was a movement, characterized by artists’ transfer of personality and mind onto their painting, including social criticism in the best way it could be presented in an art work. French Romanticism closely followed the Neoclassical movement, which explains Gericault’s being strongly influenced by Michelangelo’s work (Durbin). Many critics also stated that the painting was influenced by the work of ...

Romanticism, also known as the romantic era, was an intellectual movement, complex in artistry and literature, which emerged in the mid 18th century, and drew much of its strength from its strong reactions against the Industrial Revolution. This era originated and spread from Europe. The reasons for the establishment of this movement were many. One of the reasons for the development of romanticism was to revolt or demonstrate against the norms and the characteristics that came with the Age of Enlightenment. These characteristics were in line with the emerging aristocratic political and social issues.

The movement was also against the ...