Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol.original_ [57]
Romanticism got its name from a revived interest in medieval tales called romances. “Gothic” horror stories combining elements of the macabre and occult were in vogue (it was during this period that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein), as was Gothic Revival architecture, seen in the towers and turrets of London’s Houses of Parliament. The “in” decorating look was arms and armor. Sir Walter Scott built a pseudo-Gothic castle, as did the novelist Horace Walpole, where he could, he said, “gaze on Gothic toys through Gothic glass.”
Another mark of Romanticism was its cult of nature worship. Painters like Turner and Constable lifted the status of landscape painting by giving natural scenes heroic overtones. Both man and nature were seen as touched by the supernatural, and one could tap this inner divinity, so the Romantic gospel went, by relying on instinct.
Géricault, “The Raft of the Medusa,” 1818-19, Louvre, Paris. Géricault inaugurated Romanticism with this canvas contrasting images of extreme hope and despair.
ROMANTICISM
VALUES: Intuition, Emotion, Imagination
INSPIRATION: Medieval and Baroque eras, Middle and Far East
TONE: Subjective, spontaneous, nonconformist
COLOR: Unrestrained; deep, rich shades
SUBJECTS: Legends, exotica, nature, violence
GENRES: Narratives of heroic struggle, landscapes, wild animals
TECHNIQUE: Quick brushstrokes, strong light-and-shade contrasts
COMPOSITION: Use of diagonal
FRENCH ROMANTICISM
GÉRICAULT. Théodore Géricault (pronounced JHAY ree coe; 1791- 1824) launched Romanticism with one painting, “The Raft of the Medusa.” He based the huge (16’ x 23½’) canvas on a contemporary event, a shipwreck that caused a political scandal. A government ship, the Medusa, carrying French colonists to Senegal sank off the west coast of Africa due to the incompetence of the captain, a political appointee. The captain and crew were first to evacuate and took over the lifeboats, towing a makeshift raft piled with 149 passengers. Eventually they cut the towrope, leaving the immigrants to drift under the equatorial sun for twelve days without food or water, suffering unspeakable torments. Only fifteen lived.
Géricault investigated the story like a reporter, interviewing survivors to hear their grisly tales of starvation, madness, and cannibalism. He did his utmost to be authentic, studying putrid bodies in the morgue and sketching decapitated heads of guillotine victims and faces of lunatics in an asylum. He built a model raft in his studio and, like an actor immersing himself in a role, even lashed himself to the mast of a small boat in a storm.
This extraordinary preparation accounts for the painting’s grim detail. But Géricault’s romantic spirit is at the root of its epic drama. The straining, contorted body language of the nude passengers says everything about the struggle for survival, a theme that obsessed the artist.
Because of the graphic treatment of a macabre subject and the political implications of the government’s incompetence, the painting created a huge sensation. Romantic passion was, for the first time, visible in extremis, capturing not some idealized form from the past but contemporary reality. The painting’s fame broke the stranglehold of the Classical Academy. From this time, French art was to stress emotion rather than intellect.
In his private life, Géricault was also an archetypal Romantic. Like the fiery poet Lord Byron who died the same year, “safety last” could have been his motto. He had no concern for his own well-being and dedicated himself to a life of passion and defending the downtrodden. His teacher called Géricault a madman, and the Louvre banned him for brawling in the Grande