Código de centro: 28078559

Tlf: 918175930

History ART
Fill in the following sections about your work of art.

The Raft of the Medusa

It was done in 1819

It is in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Author:
Théodore Géricault was a French painter who had a significant impact on the growth of
Romanticism in France. His expressive and passionate attitude is reflected in his
dramatic paintings. He had a short career but a large number of amazing artworks.

◦ He was raised in a wealthy family,

◦ Studies: Géricault demonstrated an extraordinary talent for portraying animal
movement while studying under a French painter, who taught him the
traditions of English sporting painting. Under the mentorship of the
academician Pierre-Narcisse, he also mastered the construction and
composition of classicist figures.
◦ Main artwork:

Who orders the art piece:

● The author was the one that commissioned this artwork, as in this period the
artist didn’t do it because someone asked for it, they did it for sharing an opinion
or an emotion.
● What social group does it belong to (nobility, clergy, common people?
● Is it a king or queen?
● What do you commission it for (for example, to celebrate a conquest)?

Technic:
 Depending on the support: wall (mural) on canvas (fabric) on board (wood),
sketch boards for tapestries, etc:
Oil on canvas is one of the popular art forms. It dates back from the 12th century in
China. The paints are oil based and the canvas is typically made out of cotton or
polyester.

 Depending on the technique: fresco (on wet lime), encaustic or wax (wax as a
binder, typical of antiquity) tempera (egg, fat or other organic material as a
binder, typical of the Middle Ages) tempera (tempera mixed with water) oil (oil
as a binder, slow drying (typical since the first Flemish times) watercolor (gum
arabic as a binder, very diluted in water) acrylic (plastic resin as a binder, very
resistant, since the 20th century, especially central years), collage (elements of
various glued), computer design, etc.
The author used the brush technique in La Raft de la Medusa. His technique is
characterized mainly by having imprecise contours.

 Fidelity to the object represented.

◦ Abstract. (does not represent recognizable forms) or figurative (represents
recognizable forms)
◦ Figurative with more or less naturalism (original reflection): anti-naturalistic:
symbolic, schematic features, simplified forms, rigidity, hieratic (rigid features
for solemnity) or realistic, respects characteristics of the original including
flaws, macabre, grotesque), stylized (lengthens figures, seeks delicacy)
idealistic (seeks ideal perfection)

 Finish/contour:
◦ Texture sensation hardness: smooth, not finite.
◦ Pin: detail, precision, sketchy, loose stroke, wide/narrow brushstroke
He used a smooth texture in this painting.

 Expressiveness. The figurative can have more or less expressiveness (reflection of

emotions, theatricality, gaze)

 Color or chromatic range of light and shade: polychromy, red, stew...

◦ A warm / cold: Yellow, red, orange evoke passion and emotion and proximity.
The others reflection, sadness, and distance.
The figures in the painting are made in general from points of color, but in several
figures some parts have more defined lines. Gericault can get volume in his painting to
the shadows that he places on each of the characters. The light is natural, considering
that the characters are in the sea. The colors used in this painting are also very specific,
reducing the range of colors. Géricault uses colors from beige to black through light
and dark brown tones. The color that stands out the most in this painting is the dark
and quiet beige.

 Light and shadows. Uniform, homogeneous, focal, chiaroscuro, tenebrism,

contrast zones.

 Composition can be open or closed (circular, triangular) depending on the

arrangement and integration of the elements

 Distribution: areas and grouping figures balance law, mass balance law, frame
law, adaptation to architecture

 Axes: axial or radial symmetry

 Density: horror vacui sculpture with holes or voids.

 Effects
◦ Volume. Color gradation, sculpture with voids.
◦ Perspective. Staggering, several planes, linear perspective, lines of flight,
aerial or atmospheric, hierarchical, foreshortening
◦ Movement. Real movement (kinetic art) or suggested by rhythm, position,
tension, action.

Artistic style:

● Name the historical style to which the work belongs (Renaissance, Baroque,
Gothic ...).
Go to your book and list below the fundamental characteristics of this style in
general and write them below: p.e: Art dedicated to talking about the greatness
of the pharaoh and the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Religious and funeral
functions, etc.

● Go to your book and list below the specific characteristics of the discipline
(painting, sculpture or architecture that you have) p.e: Large brick structures,
Immense columns with capitals that imitate vegetal shapes ...etc.

● Look at your work carefully and then list the characteristics that you have listed
above that you think are present in it.
 Use the information you have collected on this sheet to write a short (twelve
lines +/-) text about your work.