Changes [Dec 28, 2006]
End of the TourSource: http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art-58352
In 1816 the British surrendered to the newly anointed French Bourbon government the port of Saint-Louis in Senegal. Eager to secure its landholdings, the French Minister of Marine appointed inexperienced Frigate-Captain Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys to lead the ship. De Chaumereys ran the ship into shallow water off the west coast of Africa, forcing the passengers to abandon ship.
Because there were not enough lifeboats to carry the full 400 passengers, over 250 dignitaries crowded into the dinghies and towed a raft made out of the mast and crossbeams of the ship to carry the rest of the crew. Passengers on the lifeboats found the raft too unwieldy to navigate, so De Chaumereys decided to cut the rope and leave the rest of the crew to its fate, four miles off shore (Wikipedia).
The crew on the raft unleashed anarchy. On the first night 20 men were killed or committed suicide. By the fourth night rations had dwindled so low that some began to resort to cannibalism. By the thirteenth day when the crew was rescued, only 15 of the original 150 were found alive, and five of them died subsequently after (Wikipedia).
The tragedy became headline news all over Europe and proved especially damaging to the French government. De Chaumereys was found guilty of abandonment by a military tribunal, and the matter became a scandal embroiled in French internal politics and officials tried to cover it up.
Theodore Gericault painted the Raft of the Medusa in 1818 in response to the frenzied interest over this tragedy. To make his reproduction look as realistic as possible, Gericault reportedly sketched bodies from the morgue at the hospital to which the remaining crew members were taken. The painting depicts the crew attempting to flag down a ship on the distant horizon. The ship actually disappeared, and many on the raft committed suicide after the rescue proved a false hope. Two hours later, the Argus came and rescued the remaining 15 crew members.
The canvas is dominated by two pyramidal structures that balance the romantic work – one triangle follows the perimeter of the mast on the raft on the left and the other follows the rabble of people crying desperately to be rescued. The dynamic gestures in the background contrast with the despair and lifeless bodies that clutter the foreground. Hanging limbs invade the viewer’s space, leaving her dismayed by the horror of the incident. The painting was hallmark of the Romantic Movement in its intense depiction of emotion.
