Raft of the Medusa
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Gricault's masterpiece will always have more secrets to reveal about itself than any of its Napoleonic companion pieces, even those on a similarly grand scale by David and Delacroix, which hang near it in the Louvre. Albert Alhadeff's skilfully plotted The Raft of the Medusa suggests why this should be so. Alhadeff's book, subtitled Gricault, Art and Race, is the first study to examine, and suggest a reason for the presence - and prominence - in the painting of the black survivors of the tragedy, in particular the figure at the apex of the composition who hails the rescue ship, the Argos. Although Lorenz Eitner was the first to document the political web of Napoleonic corruption and intrigue that ultimately abandoned the Medusa's passengers to their fate in 1817, Alhadeff has much to add which is revealingly new and original on the subject of the actual suffering of the castaways, Gricault's sources and, in particular, the climate of abolitionism, including the French government's colonial response and involvement in West Africa. These subjects lie at the heart of this new reading, argued across four well documented chapters.
As the first modern history painting 'The Raft of the Medusa' retains its immediacy the more we learn about the actual events that gave rise to it. This new interpretation implicitly shows why 'The Raft of the Medusa' still retains its power as the Romantic masterpiece par excellence, as well as marking the beginning of the modernist spirit in Western painting. At its heart is an ambiguity of perception on several levels, including the perception of its creator and of those who viewed it when the 'Raft' was first seen at the Salon of 1819. Ostensibly a modern history painting cast in the language of Michelangelo, the subject matter is in itself as ambiguous as the representation of the minute ship on a distant horizon - though in the early studies and related works, the Argos appears proportionately much larger. Why, in the 'Raft', did Gricault make the Argos so inconspicuous that it is almost invisible?..