ARHI 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Shoal, Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste De Forbin, Chiaroscuro
16 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
The medusa (or m duse) was a french naval frigate that boasted 40 guns and fought in the napoleonic wars of the early 19th century. Remarkably, the ship survived these maritime battles only to crash on a sandbank in 1816 during an attempt to colonize senegal. A shortage of lifeboats sent sailors scrambling to build a raft. Only 10 of approximately 150 people who boarded the raft lived through this catastrophe. Shortly thereafter, g ricault drew his inspiration from the accounts of two survivors. Obsessed with this tragic tale, g ricault not only interviewed and sketched the. Medusa crewmates, but also read everything he could find about the harrowing event. He even attended the indictment trial of the ship"s captain, viscount hugues. G ricault experimented with various models and wax figures, studied drowned cadavers at the morgue, and carefully planned how to fill the massive canvas he"d prepared for his masterpiece.
