Theodore Gericault, "The Raft of the Medusa": a story, description, analysis

The departure from classicism, where everything is up to the smallest detail, is reconciled to a new romanticism created in free France and in prose, poetry, and painting, is characteristic of a young artist who is tightly bounded within defined limits. Therefore, Jericho will also write "The Raft of Medusa."

Life of Theodore Gericault

The artist was born in Rouen in 1791. His family was well-off, but the child was early placed in a boarding school, where he studied. The passion for drawing horses led him to the teacher Claude Vernet, then to Pierre Guérin. But the real teachers for him were J. L. David and J. A. Gro. He grew up at a time when France was full of hope, when sincere patriotic and then dramatic feelings overwhelmed the people. Nobody will say that the years from the Great French Revolution to the establishment of Napoleon's empire and defeat in his war with Russia were serene. All these moods, strong passions, worried the whole country, absorbed the young Theodore, who later will embody them in their canvases. The brightest and most disturbing thing that Jericho will write is the Raft of Medusa. The first painting he will create in 1812, there, of course, there will be a horse. But, despite the Gold Medal received for this work, the government did not buy it. However, the young artist does not lose heart, writes and writes his favorite horses. Painting Gerico "Raft" Medusa "" will be created in a few years.

Romanticism

The style was completely formed when Gérico was no longer alive, in the mid-fifties of the 19th century. Romanticism was completely oriented to the present. What is the essence of romantic perception of the world? First, the concept of freedom is formed, which can be discussed for a long time, and a fundamental violation of all rules, including at the level of aesthetics. Romantic aesthetics affirms the category of the sublime, which is inseparable from the notions of the mysterious and terrible (The Raft of Medusa, Theodore Gericault). The philosopher Edmund Berg asserted that the category of the majestic is necessarily connected with fear. Another philosopher stressed that if some energy remains in the souls of people, only a new misfortune can lead them out of lethargy. The development of this new aesthetic instinctively came up in his film The Raft of Medusa, Theodore Gericault.

Tragedy

The plot of the picture is based on a real tragedy. Along the coast of Senegal, the military three-masted ship "Medusa" suffers, having sat on the bank, the wreck. It happened in 1816. It seemed that nothing special should happen: the ship's boats will make two flights and take out all the passengers. In addition, it was decided to build a raft area of 140 square meters. M. But the unforeseen happened: the wind grew stronger, and the frigate gave a crack. Panic struck all. The captain gave the order to all to leave the ship. But 17 people remained on the ship, and one hundred and forty-seven people moved to the raft. He had to be led by a boat tug. But the weather was not favorable, they were waiting for the storm. The raft was heavily congested, it could not move on its own, it had no food or water. The people in the boats were afraid that those who are on the raft will start going to the boats and cut the ropes that connect the raft with them. All who were on boats were saved. And on the raft the situation became terrible. A group of officers and passengers and a group of sailors and soldiers were formed. On the very first night, twenty people were killed. And when the storm began, the distraught people struggled to be in the center of the raft. Theodore Gericault's The Raft of Medusa shows this moment. On the fourth day, less than half the people were left, and the rest began to eat human flesh. They did not have any products. Four days later, the fifteen strongest men threw all the others into the sea. When this news reached the society, it was shocked by the nightmare of what had happened. This immoral incident served as a reason for parsing the behavior of the captain, who, having saved himself, did not wish or could not help the crashed victims.

Preliminary work

In the huge picture of Jericho "The Raft of the Medusa", written in 1818-1819, people are depicted in different positions and in different mental states. A large number of sketches and sketches were made: the storm sea, people in different positions, sitting, lying, standing. To work as a nature, including the bodies of patients from hospitals and from the morgue were used. Jericho finds a carpenter who made a raft and orders a small copy of it, sculpts wax characters to be depicted in the picture, placing them on a raft. Thus began work on the picture of Jerico "The Raft of the Medusa." The description of his contemporaries says that he even shaved his head, so that he could not go anywhere and not break away from work.

Cloth Jericho

In order to be able to see all the characters in the picture and the full view of the sea, the painter took a camera angle, allowing to make the whole view from above. People on the canvas just noticed the ship and behave differently. This is required by Gericault to convey all the emotions that possessed the distraught people. Someone gives a signal, someone lies half dead in prostration, someone is stupefied with despair and does not react to anything, someone tries to bring the dying person to life and keeps him from falling from the raft. In the picture of Gericault "The Raft of the Medusa" "there is no statics, it is dynamic. In the foreground are people trying to bring the dying to life. On the second - believing in salvation and giving signals. Compositional is a few triangular figures that give the viewer a sense of desire to fight and win. But the wind carries the raft from the ship of salvation. And is it visible? The color of the painting is gloomy and dark at the bottom of the canvas, but towards the horizon it brightens, filling the soul with hope. The raft itself almost rests on the picture frame. He makes watching almost participants in the ongoing tragedy. Low dark clouds enhance the tragedy of the situation. And huge ocean waves are ready to wash people off the raft. Alternately, then hope, then despair seize people who filled the raft of the Medusa. Jericho (the description of the picture) becomes close and understandable to everyone who peers into the canvas, created by classical technical methods of work, but filled with romantic aesthetics.

Early death

Theodore Gericault died at the age of 33, having fallen on a walk from his horse and was injured incompatible with life. Only after his death was evaluated the innovation of the picture, and she was ranked in the category of romanticism.