Zhero raft jellyfish. The history of one picture - "the raft" Medusa "" Theodore Zhero

The picture of the French artist Theodore Zheriko "raft of the jellyfish" of 1819 attracted me primarily by his story and a terrible tragedy, which went to her base. Giant canvas impressive with its expressive power, by connecting in one picture of dead and alive, hope and despair.

The canvas is huge. Length is 7 m, and width is 5 m

Raft jellyfish.

Tragedy in the sea.

FROM the south for the picture was the event that worn at that time all France. On June 17, 1816, a small French squadron - the frigate "Medusa", Corvette "Echo" and "Loire" and Brig "Argus" - went from France to Senegal.

On board each of the ships was a considerable number of passengers - soldiers, officials of the colonial administration and their families. Among them were also the governor of Senegal Shmalz, and the soldiers of the "African battalion" - three companies of 84 people scored from people of different nationalities, among which there were also former criminals, and different Sorvigolov. The flagship ship "Jesus" and the whole squadron was commanded by Düruad Schomare, an inexperienced captain who received this position on protection.

Frigate.

Corvette

Brig.

The inexperience of the captain quickly made himself to know. The high-speed "jellyfish" broke away from the rest of the vessels of the flotilla and less than a month of sailing a stranded near the Green Cape Islands 160 km from the shores of West Africa. The little sandy bank was clearly designated on the maps of a light spot, but the Someroma's poorly read the marine cards managed to drive his ship to this part of the Atlantic water area. When the team began to throw away overboard, to alleviate the weight of the vessel, the captain of the presek these attempts? - How could the state property been diluted? He decided to get to the shore on boats.

There were only six of them, and "Medusa" carried about four hundred people on board. Among them were the future governor Senegal Colonel Julien Schmalz, his spouse, as well as several dozen scientists, high-ranking military and aristocrats. It was this public that took places in boats. On board the "jellyfish" there are seventeen people. The remaining one hundred forty nine with a minimum feeder of food and freshwater was overloaded on a small raft, scorched from the mast and boards.

For all marine laws, Schomare as the captain was supposed to leave the vessel last, but did not do it. He, Governor Shmalz and senior officers are located in boats. Several younger ranks, thirty sailors and most of the soldiers and passengers easier moved to the raft. To command the raft was instructed by Gardemaryna Kudenu, with difficulty moving due to the leg injury.

Those who fell to sailing on the raft, they did not even allow the provisions with them to not overload the raft. On abandoned frigate, 17 people left, who did not find a place in a raft, nor in boats.

Transport bulky heavy raft turned out to be extremely difficult. The rowers were out of their strength. Their, as well as the captain "Medusa", who was in one of the boats, had already worried about his own salvation - about the storm could not come down. Unexpectedly, the rope held on the tug of the raft was cut off. It is unclear whether it happened on someone's fault or just a rope could not stand.

No restrained, boats with the captain and governor on board rushed forward. Only the crew of one boat again tried to take a raft into a tug, but after several failures also left him.

And those who were in boats, and those who stayed on the raft, understood that the fate of the fleet was predicted: even if he holds for a while on the way, people still do not have provisions. On the raft - without steering, without sails, which was almost impossible to manage, - 148 people left: 147 men and one woman, former Marcitan. People embraced a sense of hopelessness ...

When the boats began to disappear from sight, despair and rage cries on the raft. When the first discharge, replaced by the feeling of hatred and bitterness, began to check the cash reserves: two barrels of water, five barrels of wine, a drawer of crackers, torn by sea water, and all ... Spkey crackers ate on the first day. Only wine and water remained.

By night, the raft began to dive into the water. "The weather was terrible, - write in their book memories engineer Corrier and Savigni Surgeon, the participants of the drift on the raft" jellyfish ". - the raging waves overlap us and sometimes knocked off. What a terrible state! It is impossible to imagine all this! To seven o'clock in the morning, the sea calmed a little, but what a terrible picture opened our gaze. The twenty dead was on the raft. At twelve of them, the legs were clamped between the boards when they slid along the deck, the rest was shorn over the board ... "

Having lost twenty people, the raft slightly raised, and his middle appeared above the sea. There everyone coursed. Strong pressed the weak, the bodies of the dead threw in the sea. Everyone was greedily peeking in the horizon in the hope of seeing "Echo", "Argus" or "Loire", hurrying to help them. But the sea was absolutely deserted ...

"Last night was terrible, this is even more terrible," Korreary and Savigny write. - Huge waves fell on the raft every minute and with rage boiled between our bodies. Neither the soldiers nor the sailors have no longer doubted that their last hour came.

They decided to facilitate the death-minute moments, drunk to the loss of consciousness. Inxication did not slow down to make confusion in the brains, and without the diverse and lack of food. These people were clearly intended to be divided with officers, and then destroy the raft, cut the cables connected to the logs. One of them with a boarding ax in his hands moved to the edge of the fleet and began to chop fasteners.

Measures were accepted immediately. A madman with an ax was destroyed, and then a universal dump began. Among the stormy sea, on this doomed raft, people fought with sabers, knives and even teeth. Firearms from the soldier was selected when landing on a raft. Through the wounded wounds broke through the female cry: "Help! Tone! "

It screamed the Marcitan, which rebelled soldiers were encountered from the raft. Correar rushed into the water and pulled it out. In the same way, the Ocean was the junior lieutenant Losak, saved him; Then the same disaster with the same outcome fell to the share of Gardenarin Kuden. So far, it is difficult for us to comprehend, as the insignificant handful of people managed to resist such a huge number of madmen; We were probably not more than twenty, fighting with all this mad Reli! "

When Dawn came, there were dead or 65 people on the raft. A new trouble was discovered: during the landfill, two barrels with wine were thrown into the sea and the two sole on the raft barrels with water. Two more wine barrels were twisted on the eve. So on all those who are alive - more than sixty people - now only one barrel remained with wine.

Passed hours. The horizon remained dead clean: neither the land, no sail. People began to torment hunger. Several people tried to organize fish fishing, building tackle from a girlfriend, but this idea turned out to be unsuccessful. The next night turned out to be more calm than previous ones. People slept standing, knee-deep in the water, closely clinging to each other.

By the morning of the fourth day, a little more than fifty people remained on the raft. A flock of volatile fish jumped out of the water and slapped on the wooden flooring. They were very small, but very good taste. They were eating raw ... The next night the sea remained calm, but the real storm was raged on the raft. Part of the soldiers who are dissatisfied with the installed portion of wine raised the riot. Among the night darkness, the massacre boiled down ...

By the morning, only 28 people remained alive. "Sea water corrupted the skin on our feet; We were all in the bruises and wounds, they burned from salty water, forcing us to shut every minute, "Korraar and Savigny are told in their book. - Wines remained only for four days. We calculated that if the boats did not throw ashore, they need at least three or four days to reach Saint Louis, then it still needs time to equip vessels that will look for us. " However, no one was looking for them ...

The people were wounded, disassembled by thirst and hunger people fell into the state of apathy and complete hopelessness. Many went crazy. Some have already come to such a frenzy from hunger, which was thrown into the remains of one of their comrades in misfortune ... "At the first moment, many of us were not touched on this food. But after a while they were forced to resort and everyone else was forced. "

On the morning of July 17, the ship appeared on the horizon, but soon disappeared from sight. At noon, he appeared again and this time took the course right on the raft. It was Brig "Argus". A terrible spectacle appeared to the eyes of his crew: half-faced raft and on it fifteen exhausted to the last extreme, semi-dimensional people (five of them later died). Fifty-two days after the disaster, the frigate "Medusa" was found after the catastrophe - he, who, universal surprise, did not sink, and on his board there were still three people from among those seventeen, which remained on the ship.

Among those saved on the raft were the officers of Corrier and Savigni. In 1817, they published notes about these tragic events. The book began in words: "The history of marine travel does not know another example, as terrible as the death of" jellyfish "."

This publication had the widest resonance. France was amazed that her enlightened citizens could go down to cannibalism, eating corpses and other abominations (although surprising here, perhaps, there is particularly nothing - after all, passengers "jellyfish" grew and formed in a bloody era of revolution and continuous wars).

A considerable political scandal broke out: in the "Medusa" tragedy, Liberals hurried to blame the royal government, which poorly prepared an expedition.

The work of the artist over the picture.

In November 1818, Zhriko retired in his workshop, saw his head so that there was no temptation to go to secular evenings and entertainment, and was completely given to work on a huge web - from morning to evening, for eight months.

The work was tense, much changed on the go. For example, having spent so much time on gloomy etudes, Zheriko for the painting itself almost did not take advantage of them. He refused pathology and physiology for the sake of disclosing the psychology of doomed people.

In his canvas, Zhriko creates an artistic version of events, but very close to the actual one. He unfolded on a raft, overwhelmed by waves, a complex gamut of psychological states and experiences of people who endure disaster here is therefore even the corpses in the picture do not carry the seal of dystrophic exhaustion and decomposition, only the exactly transmitted oderouserness of their bodies shows that in front of the audience the dead.

At first glance, the viewer may seem that the figures are located on the raft somewhat chaotic, but it was deeply thought out by the artist. In the foreground, the "frieze of death" - the figures are given in a kind of magnitude, here are dying, people immersed in complete apathy. And next to them already dead ...

In hopeless despair, the father sits at the corpse of his beloved son, supporting his hand, as if trying to catch the beat of the frozen heart. To the right of the figure of the son - lying head down the body of a young man with an elongated hand. Above him a man with a wandering look, apparently, who lost his mind. This group ends the figure of the dead man: the crumbled legs cluck to the beam, hands and head are omitted in the sea ..

. The raft itself is shown near the frame, therefore, and from the viewer, which involuntarily makes the latter as if an accomplice of tragic events. Gloomy clouds hung over the ocean. Heavy, huge waves take up to the sky, threatening the raft and burned unhappy people on it. The wind with the strength of tears a sail, bowing to the mast, held by thick ropes.

In the second plan of the picture, a group of believing in salvation is located, because the hope of death can come to the world of death and despair. This group forms a kind of "pyramid, which is crowned with a neg-tag figure, trying to attract attention to the Argus Brig's horizon. In addition, Zhriko managed to show a different reaction to what is happening all the participants of the tragedy. This is expressed and in flavoring pictures: if on" The frieze of death "he was dark, then to the horizon - a symbol of hope - it becomes lighter.

How did you perceive the picture?

When Zhriko put "the raft" Medusa "" inSalon in 1819 The picture caused indignation of the public, since the artist contrary to the academic standards of that time used such a large format not for the image of a heroic, moral or classical plot.

Highly appreciated the picture Eugene Delacroix , posed to his friend, witnessed the birth of the composition breaking all the usual ideas aboutpainting . Later Delacroix recalled that he saw the finished picture, he"The delighted rushed to run like a crazy, and could not stay until at home.".

After the death of the artist in 1824, the picture was put on the auction and acquired by his close friend, the artist Deadre-Dorussi, for 6000 francs, while representatives of the museum in Louvre were not ready to go further than 5,000. In the future, Dedre-Dorsey rejected the offer to sell work in the US For a much greater amount, and as a result, he gave way to her Louvra for the same 6000 with the condition that it will be placed in the main exposition. Currently, the "Medusa raft" is located in the Louvre.

On the web of Zhriko "Rack" Medusa "" No Hero, but unnamed people, suffering and decent sympathies are perpetuated.In this picture, Zhriko first raised the theme of humanity before romantics and demonstrated an exceptional realistic painting manner.

Fate Captain:

Captain 1st Rank Jean Duroua de Schomare appeared before the tribunal, was fired from the fleet and sentenced to imprisonment for three years. In the edges where he lived his age, everyone knew about his "exposures" and treated him contemptuously and hostile. He lived a long life, died at 78 years old, but the longevity was not in joy. He had to hold the rest of his life, because everywhere had to hear insults. Hisonly The son committed suicide, unable to demolish his father's shame ...

The artist Theodore Zhriko died in 32 years as a result of falling from a horse.

Your opinion about the picture and tragedy that fell in its foundation?

(Write that you most affected you)

Theodore Zheriko. Raft jellyfish. 1818 - 1819. Canvas, oil. 491cm x 716 cm Paris, Louvre

"Neither poetry nor painting will never be able to express
horror and flour experienced by people on the raft "
Theodore Zheriku

No matter how tired and fastened to the impressions of the visitor of the Louvre, he will surely stop in the 77th hall of the gallery "Denon" in front of the painting "Rack" Medusa "" and, forgetting fatigue, will begin to consider a huge cloth. The audience, first seen a picture at the exhibition of the Paris Salon in August 1819, she struck at least than our contemporaries. Newspapers wrote that crowds of visitors stayed "before this frightening picture, which attracts every eye." Parisians, unlike today's spectators, did not have to explain that he portrayed a young painter Theodore Zherik (1791 -1824). Although the picture was called the "scene of shipwrecks", all unmistakably recognized the raft "Medusa", the story of which was known to each Frenchman at that time.

Pictures of Theodore Zheriko "Wounded Kirassir" (1814) and "Muses" raft "in Louvre, Denon Gallery .

On June 17, 1816, the French maritime expedition was heading to Senegal, which consisted of frigate "Medusa" and three more vessels. On board the frigate there were about 400 people - the new governor of the colony, officials, their families, the soldiers of the so-called African battalion. Head of the Expedition, Captain "Medusa" de Schomare, was appointed to this position on protection, and its incompetence manifested itself the faded way. "Medusa" lost sight of the accompanying vessels, and on the night of July 2, it was stranded between the islands of the green cape and the coast of West Africa. In the housing of the vessel, it was opened to flow, and it was decided to leave, but the boats did not have enough. As a result, the captain, the governor with a retinue and senior officers are located in boats, and 150 sailors and soldiers moved to the raft, built under the direction of the engineer Alexander Correara. The boats had to tow the raft to the shore, however, at the first signs, the weatherproof ropes, binding boats with a raft, burst (or were deliberately chopped), and the boats were floating.

Reconstruction of the Tough Museum

Already on the first night, people who remained on a crowded raft almost without food and drink (since the shore was near, the rafts decided not to overload with suctions), entered the bloody fight, retavating the water and more secure places near the mast. Coverment, madness, cannibalism was their lot, until 12 days after the shipwreck "Argus" - one of the ships accompanying the "Medusa" - did not remove 15 people left from the fleet. Five of them soon died.

The boat sails from the fleet. Sketch of theodore Zheriko to the picture "The raft" jellyfish ".

Shipwreck History "Medusa" did not go from newspaper pages, saved Passengers of the raft Engineer Alexander Korrear and Surgeon Henri Savigni in November 1817 released the book "The death of the frigate" Medusa "", in which frankly, without hiding terrible details, told about the experience. But the topic of visual art, the story of "jellyfish" did not become until theodore Zheriko became interested, shortly after the release of the book returned from a long journey in Italy. This native Rouran received a good art education and has already paid attention to several jobs - portraits of Napoleonic officers on the battlefield, and the horses that Zhriko loved since childhood, occupied the artist no less than warriors.

Theodore Zheriko. Self-portrait.

Zheriko was materially independent and could afford to write his "medus raft" "how long. The artist was immersed in the events, simulated them, "put" as the theatrical play, passed through all the circles of this hell, for which he was later called in one of the newspapers "Dante in painting". He knew the book of Correara and Savigni, met by all documents, including the materials of the Court of Captain, talked for a long time with surviving swimming on the raft, wrote their portraits.

Theodore Zheriko. Officer of horseback hurkers during the attack. 1812.

He removed a huge workshop, in which a model of the flesh was built using participants in the fatal swimming. On her, the artist placed wax figures, specifying the composition of the future picture. He visited the sea coast of Normandy to survive the storm and make sketches. He talked with doctors to imagine how extreme deprivation - hunger, thirst, fear - affect the body and mind of a person. Zhriko made sketches in hospitals and morgues, sketched in the hospitals of the face of madmen. He brought from the morgue decaying remains and not only painted them, but sat, surrounded by fragments of the bodies to imagine what was there to be there on the raft. Few people could withstand the atmosphere of his workshop even a few minutes, he also worked in her from morning to night.

More than one hundred sketches - pen, gouache, butter - made Zeriko in search of the plot of the paintings. Fight, disgusting scenes of cannibalism, despair and madness, the moment of salvation ... The artist, in the end, chose that moment when the horizon appears a barely distinguishable sail and is not yet clear whether the raft will notice from the ship.

Battle on the raft. Sketch of theodore Zheriko to the picture "The raft" jellyfish ". .

In November 1818, Zhriko retired in the workshop, saw his head so that there was no temptation to go out into the world, and for eight months one on one with a canvas of 35 square meters. meters. Only close friends were in the workshop, including the young Eugene Delacroix, who posted for one of the figures. Delacroix was among the first spectators: seeing the picture, he was so shocked that "delighted rushed to run like a crazy, and could not stop at home."

..
Fragments of bodies from anatomical theater. Sketches of Theodore Zheriko to the picture of the "Medusa raft".

The picture really shakes, but by no means naturalism, as it was possible to expect: the artistic image was stronger than the documentary. Where is the exhausted dried bodies, insane faces, semi-coded corpses? Before us, the athletes, beautiful even in death, and about the scenes of violence resembles only a bloody ax in the lower right corner of the canvas. Its experience of the reconstruction of events on the raft of Zhero accumulated into the perfect, deeply thought-out composition of the picture, in which each gesture is recovered and each item. The artist chose a point of view from above, having put forward the raised raised on the wavelength to the front edge of the canvas - it seems to float the picture from the plane, involving the viewer into action. Four dead bodies in the foreground form an arc, pulling the raft into the sea deep, to death. Hands, legs, heads are turned down, in this part of the flesh reigns the immobility of the dead and the stupor of the living - the Father, frozen over the body of the deceased son, and sitting next to him a madness with a blank look.

Sketches of Theodore Zheriko to the picture "The raft" jellyfish ""

A heavy sail, which eats the wave impending on the raft, the mast, fastening its ropes and a group of doubting, who have not yet believed in the rescue of people, form a composite "big pyramid", whose vertex will take place towards the wave, in the direction opposite to the ship. The right rushes up "Pyramid of Hope" with the foundation from exhausted bodies and the vertex, on which people trying to attract the attention of the ship were grouped. We will again see the headings of the hands, pulling forward, to the bare point on the horizon as soon as possible. A low cloud duplicates the outlines of the wave absorbing the "big pyramid", but the ray breaks through the clouds, against which the "pyramid of hope" emerges.

Composite "Pyramids"

In the picture of Zheriko, deep and competitive knowledge of the classics are felt.
Contrast lighting with caught from darkness and figures makes talking about the influence of Caravaggio, in the fulfilled drama of the plexus of living and dead bodies, something Rubensovskoe is seen. But most of all on the artist influenced the favorite Michelangelo, about the meeting with the works of which Zhriko wrote: "I trembled, I doubted myself and could not recover from this experience for a long time." Strong relief modeling that gives figures sculpture, high patter of images, sharp angles, - all this refers us to the images of the "Sicstinskaya Capella".

Michelangelo Buonaroti. Fragment of the fresco "Scary Court" in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. 1537-1541 .

Contemporaries The work of Jerical struck by not a classic perfection, but unheard of audacity: the story of a recent shipwreck was suitable for newspaper strips, but not for a large-scale multifiguric picture. The heroes of antique history or mythology were depicted on a huge canvas in full size, as was customary in the canons of neoclassicism, but contemporaries, besides commoner. In the plot of the paintings there was nothing moral or sublime, all the rules and concepts of academic art were earthed. Few people saw that Zhriko raised the specific history of shipwrecks to the symbol, managed to give her versatility, presented as an eternal confrontation of a person with the elements, brought into an ordinary, strict, static world of neoclassicism. Fresh breathing of romanticism - gust, movement, live feeling.

Eugene Delacroa. "Ladya Dante". 1822.
The picture feels the influence of the creator of theodore Zhero

But the aesthetic rejection of the picture did not limit it. "The raft" Medusa "," unexpectedly for the author, poured into a sea of \u200b\u200bpolitical passions. In the painting, contemporaries saw the Alleraria of France of the Restoration of the Restoration, mired in corruption and bribery (which was the cause of the tragic outcome of the swimming under the start of ineptly, but appointed by the captain's protection). Government circles and the official press found the painter in dangerous Buntar, the king of Louis XVIII itself asked: "This is Monsieur Zhriko, - isn't the shipwreck in which he drove his artist?" On the contrary, the opponents of the regime saw in the picture the accusatory document. As one of the critics wrote, Zheriko "showed on thirty square meters of the picture of the entire shame of the French fleet." Historian and publicist Jules Misha summed up the scandal around the picture by the phrase by the phrase: "This is France itself, this is our society immersed on the raft" Medusa "."

..
Portrait of a crazy. 1824.

Zhriko was dumbfounded by this technique: "The artist, like a jester, should be able to treat with full indifference to everything that comes from newspapers and magazines." The odious picture was not purchased by the state, and the disappointed author went with his cloth in Tournai in England, where he showed a "raft" at paid exhibitions and found a much more benevolent reception than in his homeland.

Theodore Zheriko. Racing in Epsom. 1821.

It seemed that the "raft" jellyfish "" is the first major work of a promising young artist, which, judging by his next works, - a series of portraits of mentally ill and written in England painting "Racing in Epsom" - Zhriko is waiting for a brilliant future. The conceived historical canvas "The retreat of the French from Russia in 1812" may have eclipsed "the raft" jellyfish "", but the early masterpiece of Theodore Zhriko turned out to be his last major work. In January 1824, the artist died after painful illness, and without recovering after an unsuccessful fall from the horse. (Ironically, Captain de Somoomer, who destroyed the "Medusa", lived a long, but overshadowed a disgrace life).

Theodore Zheriko. White horse head

After the death of Theodore Zheriko "The raft" Medusa "" was put up at auction and acquired by his close friend, the artist Pierre-Joseph Deadre-Dorsey, for 6000 francs, while the Louvre was not ready to pay more than 5000 francs for the cloth. Dedre-Dorsey rejected a proposal to sell work for a large amount in the United States and eventually gave way to her Louvra for the same 6000 francs with the condition that it will be posted in the main exposition of the museum.

Nicolas MailLot. "The raft" Medusa "" in the Louvre. 1831.

Illustrations with from Wikimedia website

More recently, friends were surprised at the courage of his design and were even ready to dissuade the artist from the bold ventiy. But Theodore was adamant.

Understand finally! He got hot. - For thirteen days, unhappy worn on the raft in the ocean. " From one hundred forty-seven people just fifteen survivors. Semi-reflective and exhausted, they were found among the corpses of their dead comrades. And all this is due to the fault of the Castle Captain, the old monarchist, who was restored as a rights in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon, although not swimming for more than twenty years! It was by his order a raft with people was not thrown by the arbitrariness of fate. No, I will write a big picture, and you will understand what is the cowardice of aristocrats, so close to the heart of our blessed Louis XVIII ...

A young artist with fervor is taken for work. In the hospital, he did etudes right in bed beds. But to give creation realism, you need to know everything that happened on this hellish raft. He meets with Correary, a simple sailor, and Savigni, the second surgeon of the frigate "Medusa", survived the terrible drama. Turning thought drills the brain: if they survived, then why? How difficult it is to separate the truth from lies in the stick of facts, legends, rumors and gossip!

We followed the kilvater column of four ships to deliver a new French garrison in Saint-Louis-du Senegal. Where is it seen, Monsieur Zhriko to lose sight of the walking ships behind behind? And all Captain Scomare. An insignificant and swelling man, he created on board the "jellyfish" an unbearable atmosphere: the old emigrant monarchist, besides the talentless sailor, he enjoyed any reason to humiliate officers. I remember perfectly, as on the way to Madeira, on the orders of Gomar in the open sea was left without help, a little Jung, accidentally filled out ...

Correar interrupts Savigni:

The captain did not even know where we are! When "Medusa" village of Argen, he thought she was in a hundred miles from her! People had to leave the frigate, but God, what mess reigned at the same time! The indecision of the captain of Storm was handed over the rest. When disembarking from the ship is incredible. Panic covered the team, passengers and soldiers. Four hundred people with difficulty accommodated in six boats and on logs of a shaded raft. The soldiers fought with butts to take places before the passengers. The raft is twenty-seven meters the size of it and the matter is launching to the sides under the weight of one hundred forty-seven people. Initially, the boats took it on a tug, but then, without warning, the ropes were chosen ...

Do not miss, rather burn each word! Whether he will recreate a terrible moment when the discovered crowd of doomed sees how the rope is chopped!

It seems to him as if he himself experiences the despair of people thrown into the arbitrary of fate in the open ocean. Occasionally he makes sketches from the face and gestures of Correara.

The artist rides in Havre to look at the sea that never wrote, and wanted a carpenter there with "Jellyfish". He brings him to Paris so that he in his workshop will build exactly the same raft, which he once tied from the logs to Meli Argen. Tightening knots on hemp cables, the sailor tells:

On the first night, twenty people fell into the sea.

Officers?

Oh no, the carpenter answers, smiling gloomily. - These gentlemen were in the middle of the raft. The next day, three passengers rushed into the water to commit suicide. Under the evening, the first rebellion broke out: dissatisfied rebelled against officers. Night For the raft, people were fought, knives, sticks, fists went into move.

It is necessary like ticks, pull out the detail of the detail from the memory of the eyewitness. One after another words of this person are drawn in front of the inner ok artist whose gesture or pose.

On the fourth day, we had sixty-three, "the carpenter continues. - The distraught people crawled along the deck and bite each other behind their feet. Some of the ram. On the eighth day, only twenty-seven people were already on the raft. Marie-Zinaidaida, Markattka from Senegal, died at the same evening ... and her body ...

As if not noticing the confusion of a carpenter, theodore persistently asks:

What did you eat? What did you drink?

There were five kegs with wine. Some tried to drink sea water. As for food ...

Farer silence. The carpenter is silent about something, and, apparently, no accident.

When you found "Argus", pieces of meat were dried on the ropes. Where did they come from?

Falls fell on the raft. We devoured them with raw ...

But you ate ... People's corpses!

The sailor lowers his head.

For the eleventh day, an inhuman decision was made. Our wounded seeded the portions of others. Therefore, they were thrown into the sea. Covered with ulcers, twisted with hunger and the sun, we did not think. Finally, on the twelfth day we saw the sail. Oh, it looked like a mirage. No one believed in salvation. And those who still kept at least a drop of hope, lay in full exhaustion. Only Jean-Charles, sailor-ebony, began to wave a shirt ...

That's how! This poor fellow, whom everyone despised for the black skin, had more of the presence of the spirit than others! Be sure to draw, as he calls the saving ship.

Alas, "Argus" did not see us. We were yelling as accepted from the last forces, waved their hands. Funny: as if ten miles could see a miserable shell among the endless expanses of the ocean! People lost all hope ...

Now it is necessary to force the old man to remember the position of each of the remaining on the raft, their clothes.

Another crazy night passed. But the providence must have cleared over us. The next day "Argus" accidentally noticed us and picked up ...

Zhriko already sees the whole scene.

Now just put the simulator in places and give them the necessary postures. Negro Joseph, a professional swimmer, plays the role of Jean Charles. Delacroix posing, depicting another sufferer. Zhriko writes in some kind of frenzy. It requires all the absolute silence and interrupts the work only then to go to the hospital, make a portrait of a dying.

Going to visit the Son, Zheriko meets her friend Lebedna, a sick jaundice, and immediately pounces the sketch. He needs a special type - rather gloomy to reflect the experience of the father, who has a dead son on his knees ...

In 1819, two-year labor was completed. But before sending a picture to the exhibition, the artist is also peppering again into a huge cloth. The hole is visible on the raft on the right. For one night, an image of a semi-naked person immersed in water appears.

And finally, the exhibition. Jury members came to assess unusual creation.
Tightened in the fur tails and composed with high tougher ties, they do not hide
its indignation.

Why did you need to portray this nastiness? Is it really dried out the antichy plots? Wrote Caesar, Horace, or Brute, in a word, something is classic, "one grows.

We cannot agree with the name of the "raft" jellyfish, "concludes the chairman of the jury. - It will cause a unheard of insult honor of the Royal Fleet, the authority of the Maritime Administration. Let the picture of the shipwreck scene adapt.

Zheriko does not mind, because he knows: youth still knows a distress story. The disaster "Medusa", the prissthood of her commander does not go with the mouth of the public. In the opening of the cabin around the painting of Zhero greedily crowds the people.

This accusation abandoned in the face of the regime, journalists say.

Picture of Theodore Zhero Jury refers to the XI class. After the cabin, it is hanging in an angle, away from curious eyes. The state refuses to buy it for the museum, although Zhriko, who worked on her two years, desperately needs money.

We will show the "Medusa" in England, - unexpectedly offers English impresario of Bullock. - My compatriots are crazy about marine scenes and are always happy to blame at the address of French sailors.

Zheriko hopes for recognition from the English public. He accompanies the picture in London and other cities of England. He gladly sees a pressure from his painting and listens to the comments of the experts.

In Motherland, Zhriko expects a surprise: a sensational sound around his brainchild. Captain de Shomare is forced to appear before the military court. Mitigating circumstances lawyers are struggling. And now the sea tribunal senses the defendant to ... three years in prison. Well, from the fact that 130 people died because of his cowardice? After all, he is an old well-deserved monarchist, loyal king, what little.

Coming out of the conclusion, Scomare thinks: "Finally you can forget everything!" But until the most mortal hour, for another 20 years of his life, he could not get out of the house, so that he was not surrounded by the villagers, shouted insults to the petition.

Theodore Zheriko - French artist began the XIX century, in the work of which the features of classicism, romanticism and realism were connected. The artist in Ruang was born, received a very good education, passing training in a lyceum.

In 1817, the artist journey to Italy, where he was engaged in studying the art of revival. After returning from Italy, Zhriko appealed to the image of heroic images. He was excited by events related to the death of frigate "Medusa". With shipwreeling of 140 people, the crew was saved only 15. They managed to land on the raft, and they were on the sea for 12 days, until the saved was chosen by Brig Argus. According to many, the catastrophe occurs due to the fault of the captain, which was taken to the vessel on protection.

These events were a plot for a large-scale picture of the artist, which is called the "Medusa" raft. " On a huge canvase, people are depicted on a raft, just noticed the ship on the horizon.

The painting "Rack" Medusa "" The artist created about a year. Before you start the picture, Zhriko saw his head. The artist needed solitude and rest. Therefore, he shared his head so as not to see anyone. He locked in his studio and came out, only when she finished his masterpiece.

"On the canvas of Zherik" The raft "Medusa" "there is no hero, but unnamed people suffering and decent sympathies are perpetuated. In the composition of the painting, the artist is faithful to the tradition of classical painting: everything canvas occupies a pyramidal group of sculpturally glued, volumetric human bodies. Painting characters Even in the moments of despair retain the greatness. And only passionate movement that the whole group is imbued, violates the equilibrium. The composition of the painting is built on two intersecting diagonals, which should have emphasized the desire of people there, where the saving ship was visible, and the echrical counter movement of the wind, which inflamed the sail and the relative raft away. Sharp lighting on top contrastingly emphasizes the tension of the heroes of the picture. " [Tropinin 1989: 305]

As we see, on the web, the main movement is developing diagonally towards each other. The traditions of Barochko are trained here. It is also worth noting sharp contrasts of light and shadow, which in this situation create a strong emotional load and persistent mental tension. It should be mentioned that romance, as well as representatives of Baroque, in contrast to classicists, refer to extreme manifestations of emotions. Recall that in the classicism there is a severity of forms and seittences of lines, strictly submitted by the canon of this genre, which is reflected in the works created in the traditions of this genre. What can not be said about the baroque genre, where emotions come to the fore. Thus, the person in this concept does not obey the mind, but lives and acts in the power of the senses. The hero, beyond by emotions, in most cases does not control itself, from here various conflicts with society and just around the world. Thus, we can see that the picture is at the junction of classicism and baroque, which is clearly traced in the mixing of these traditions as an artist of the tragic plot. This can be explained by the fact that the artist lived and worked at time, if not the struggle, then opposition, these two directions.

"The color scheme of the paintings are very dry and gloomy, only occasionally spots of bright light appear. Image style itself, accuracy and sculpture in the drawing of human bodies say that the work is made in the artistic manner of classicism. However, the plot of the paintings is a modern and very conflict - allows you to attribute this work to the number of masterpieces of romanticism. For the first time, the artist showed dynamically changing psychological states of people, a rapid dramatic conflict with the elements. " [Turchin 1982: 295]

It is also worth noting the color decision to which the author resorts to his canvas. In the picture, we see the shades of cold red, dark blue and dirty gray and brown, which symbolize the overall hopelessness and the tragity of the position of people who are in a raft fence. Thus, this color scheme creates an oppressive atmosphere of despondency and hopelessness, but at the same time, in the picture, we can observe bright white spots, which in turn can symbolize hope for the best bright future.

"Coloring the paintings is almost monochrome. Damagious paints characterize an image with some ruthless frankness. The water away like glows, foam flakes fall on the rack of the flesh. A giant wave rises behind the raft, ready to plunge the remaining ocean. " [Collars 1997: 153]

It is worth noting that the picture has portrait images of valid participants in the event - the doctor of Savigni and the engineer of Correara. They both escaped in a terrible catastrophe and posed Zhriko while writing a picture. It should be emphasized that the artist was interested in the situation of human struggle with the elements and the heroic victory over it. From here, it can be concluded that the author reflected on the problem of human survival in extreme conditions on the verge of human capabilities, which directly finds its reflection on the canvas. But this is not the only problem that Zhriko touched in his work. He also reflected on the themes of the mutual coexistence of people in society. Its picture, more precisely, the image of the sinking people in the raft is the allegory of people in difficult and unstable conditions in society. A reminiscence with the book of Julian Barnes "History of the World in 10.5 chapters", namely, with the fifth chapter of this postmodern novel, the second half of the twentieth century (1989). In his book, the author considers a number of universal problems in the philosophical aspect. Barnes draws the attention of readers to the incompetence of marine officers of the frigate "Medusa", the corruption of the royal fleet, the heartless attitude of the representatives of the ruling class to those who are the rank below. In a broader sense, you can imply the actions of people who live and survive at the expense of others, contrary to other people. We can see the reflection of this problem and on the rod of Zhriko, where many human images are divided into live people looking at the hope of a visible point on the horizon, remotely resembling a ship silhouette; And on the lifeless human bodies, static lying in bizarre ugly positions in a raft. All people are depicted in a peculiar club from woven human bodies. Alive and dead. The artist thereby allegorically shows the relationship between life and death, its continuity.

The cannibalism, described by the fifth chapter of the Barnes novel, became a peculiar result of the bloody slaughter in the old raft, which became a pitiful shelter for two weeks of the group of people. Zheriko on the canvas does not have shockingly bloody details and fragments, brightly representing cannibalism. But we can see the similarity of this in the form of two men, when one clung to the teeth in the back of the other.

Zheriko in his picture captured the moment of approaching salvation in the form of a barely visible ship on the horizon. The reaction to this action is different. Part of people lost all sorts of hope for getting rid of MUK and suffering, resigned with the arrival of his soon; Another group is vigorously waving his hands towards the approaching ship, thereby trying to attract the most attention of the crew of the vessel. They, as we can see, did not fell in spirit and believe in the nearest salvation.

In the book of D. Barnes, the Allegory of Hope and Solving is a white butterfly, which, on the reasoning of people on the raft, can only dwell close to Sushi.

"Oh different saw in this ordinary butterfly, the henger of the sky, white, like a noah pigeon. Even skeptics who do not believe in God's fishing, carefully agreed with the encouraging consideration that butterfly not far from the hard land. " [Barnes 2005: 133]

On the canvas, the artist did not depict a blonde butterfly, but the symbol of the approaching salvation is the bright color scheme, the paints of which the artist painted the sky along the horizon line. Unlike the color solution around people on the raft. Thus, the artist of heavenly enlightenment symbolizes hope for salvation, which appeared with the ship on the horizon.

List of used literature

picture of the raft Zhriko Barnes

1. Barnes D. - M.: Ast: Suite, 2005.

2. Tropinin V.A. (ed. M.M.Rakovskaya). - M: Fine art, 1982.

3. Turchin V.S. Theodore Zheriko. - M: Fine art, 1982.

4. Filimonova S.V. The history of world artistic culture. - Mozyr: White Wind, 1997.

5. 100 artists of the 20th century 1999.

In July 1816, the frigate of the Royal Fleet "Medusa" suffers collapse from the west coast of Africa. Young and not enough experienced captain leaves one hundred forty-nine people on a raft that drifts around the sea for thirteen days. One hundred thirty-four people die from cold, hunger and thirst.

The human tragedy, which Zhriko depicts, captures it entirely; He seeks to create her truthful image. This is the main desire of Zeriko dictates him the choice of composition, its character, all the innovations introduced by him. In an effort to build a scene with the greatest dramatic realism, Zhriko is forced to reject the frontal construction of the frontal construction and comes to its deep, intense, dynamic composition.

"The raft of the jellyfish" is perceived not as an episode, but as an epos; The picture clearly develops its plot, it becomes a symbol of the tragic struggle of a person with hostile elements, the personification of immense suffering, heroic stresses and a gust. Hence the generalized style of Zherik - concise, avoiding secondary effects, which focuses on the whole. Despite the wealth of disgraceful episodes, of which the composition is composed, they are all perceived not as something self-sufficient, but as a subordinate part. The "raft of jellyfish" - with all the boiling of human suffering - grows as a certain monolith, as a single unified group. This is the first thing that is perceived that it is forever imprinted in the memory of the viewer who believes dramatically saturated, the exceptional image of ...

The variety of depicted positions and experiences does not lead to the fragmentation of the composition, but is reduced to unity that creates a clear, memorable image of events, and this unity is achieved by non-mechanical methods of equilibrium, as it was at the David School.

Zheriko perceives reality primarily volume-plastically. To strengthen the spatial effect of the scene, it has a diagonally crowded raft, chooses a high point of view: This gives him the opportunity with the greatest naturalness to show the controversial diversity of what is happening, to express the entire spectrum of feelings - from the passive despair of the father, who dreamed of the Son's body, to the active struggle with the element and an incredulous and timid hope for salvation ... the romantic sound of the canvas is achieved due to the color, as well as the game of lighting. Zheriko was focused here on the paintings of Caravaggio and the painting of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo.

Zheriko exhibits this powerful seventener cloth at the 1819 salon, and it immediately turns out to be the focus of public attention. The reaction of contemporaries was unexpected for the author himself. Government circles of France and the official press dubbed the painter "Dangerous Buntarem", and Misha's historian explained why: "This is France itself, this is our society immersed on the raft of jellyfish" ...