Unit 4 - Romanticism - Sketchbook
A2 Critical and Contextual Studies
A2 Critical and Contextual Studies
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The crescendo of hope, one of the the two<br />
pyramids in the composition, the base of<br />
which is built of corpses and sick who lost<br />
their hope. As the viewer looks up<br />
towards the peak of the pyramid, he<br />
reaches the emotional peak, the figures<br />
who still believe there is a chance to be<br />
rescued. This is emphasised by the<br />
silhouette of the ship Argus, far in the<br />
distance, against the patches of light.<br />
The muted, earthy palette of the painting,<br />
strengthen by the Caravaggioesque<br />
chiaroscuro, is enlivened by the splashes<br />
of red scattered around the painting,<br />
representing death, pain and blood, but<br />
also the love and passion, evident between<br />
the old man, mourning his dead son.<br />
Géricault’s painstaking studies of the<br />
bodies in morgues and hospitals, resulted<br />
in an utmost naturalistic rendering of the<br />
flesh tones. Although Géricault undertook<br />
attentive observations of the nature, he<br />
idealised the corpses to give them the<br />
respect and a shadow of grace – as we<br />
might expect, the state of the corpses<br />
would be considerable worse on the 13 th<br />
day of the odyssey of death<br />
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