Theodore Gericault's greatest legacy as an artist is undoubtedly his Raft of the Medusa, completed in 1819. The painting is the comprehensive result of experiments with a variety of forms and styles; it marks the apogee of Gericault's career. Beautiful and horrible, incidental and ubiquitous, monumental without a specific hero, The Raft of the Medusa was to the Salon of 1819 a complete paradox. The painting's first critics were divided in their assessments by their political and …
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…secure for himself a place in history that will not easily be forgotten. He abandoned the traditional conventions of his day, the formulaic art of the past, and the prerequisites for subject matter that had previously controlled all artistic endeavors. The result was a masterful composition that reflects not only on the revolutionary mood of Gericault's time but on the transcendental element that pervades time itself. Bibliography Eitner, Lorenz. "Gericault's Raft of the Medusa." 1972, Phaidon.