II.4.3. THE GODS' MODERNITY

MENU: 2.4.3. The gods' modernity

GODS AND ESPECIALLY GODDESSES, SYMBOLS STILL

Claude Abron

In brief

• At the Louvre, when you come to an arrow go the other way 

• The first great work of defiance

• A goddess becomes a plebeian revolutionary 

• The goddess's descendants

• Now view the blockbusters!

• Outdoor endings  

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 Next,

At the Louvre, when you come to an arrow go the other way

AT THE LOUVRE, ARROWS LEAD TO THE MONA LISA...

YOU ARE OBLIGED TO FOLLOW THEM AT FIRST

AKG images

At the third landing turn around... 

The panel on this landing has disappeared: it may have been one too much.  

The crowd keeps ascending the stairs toward yet another arrow.

Climb the empty staircase...

...cross through the corridor to which it leads, passing masterpiece after masterpiece... 

 .

In the last room come upon Napoleon on the battlefield...

 

...the museum keeps the best for last 

and our visit begins two paintings beyond it. 

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Next,
The first great work of defiance

THE FIRST GREAT WORK OF DEFIANCE

 

"THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA" ADAPTS NOBLES' USE OF MYTHOLOGY TO GIVE HUMBLE SAILORS THE BODIES OF GODS

By Théodore Géricault in 1818-1819. He was 27. 

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Sailors on a raft in the high seas glimpse the ship that will save them:

 Zoom

• The very dark man highlights the hero's mixed blood to make him a symbol of all humanity (as the artist said explicitly):

• Mankind on high seas is a symbol of human fragility, the outstretched hand recalls Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam and the light on the horizon means hope.

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The true story

• The king appoints as ship captain a man who has never been to sea, because he is a noble (in 1815).

• When he wrecks the ship off Mauritanian reefs he has sailors build a raft and climb onto it, promising that officers in a lifeboat will pull them to shore. Then he has someone cut the rope:

Abandon of the Raft of the Médusa, 1837 / zoom

• After 13 days at sea, only 15 of the original 150 are still alive. They have survived by eating the dead:

      Sketch / zoom

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Besides hijacking the nobles' code, the painting...

• Attacks the king for giving a position of such responsibility to an inept and cruel crony.

• Presents a Black who is not a subordinate for the first time since the 16th century, at the height of the slave trade.

• Inaugurates Romantic art, which was often rebellious.

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Until then, huge paintings had portrayed elites only. Raft was the first to honor ordinary men with a canvas that was as immense.

Placing it next to a giant work of propaganda emphasizes its dissent:

Napoleon at Eylau by Jean Gros, 1807-1808 / zoom

  

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Fifty years later another rebel said,

"We are all on the raft of the Medusa...

When humanity has turned all its forces
 against the obstacles that hold it back, 
it will ride through the storm."

 -- Louise Michel: to be continued

Raft remains the second most famous work made in France. 

Perfonmance announcement in a café of the 13th.  

For a work that is even more iconic, please continue.

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Next,
 A goddess becomes a plebeian revolutionary

A GODDESS BECOMES A PLEBEIAN REVOLUTIONARY

"LIBERTY GUIDES THE PEOPLE," THE MOST ICONIC WORK MADE IN FRANCE  

By Eugène Delacroix, 1830-1831 / Julien Debure

• Her clothes torn off and her breasts bare, the goddess wears the red cap of freed slaves of Antiquity and leads the fight for freedom:

Zoom

• Her scandalous underarm makes her real and since almost all the fighting was done by the humble, she has to be underclass:

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It honors the Revolution of 1830, but its symbolism is universal. The goddess...

• Illustrates French history and Parisian insurrections...

French  history summarized at Blois château

 

• ...presents individual revolutionaries... 

  

• ...mobilizes for the present...

Le Monde, January 15 2015

 After the Charlie Hebdo shooting

"Stop the degradation of our environment and protect our planet"

 

Libération, March 4, 2019 / Marc Chomel

The Yellow Vests 

Métro ad for the opening of a branch of the Louvre

General contestation, street art in Belleville

• ...and inspires merch: 

Display at the Louvre  

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She is part of daily life in France...

The opening ceremony included an adaptation...

...and the painting is symbolic elsewhere:

YouTube history of France for an anglophone public

 

         Zoom

The separation barrier that runs through Bethlehem 

For the cover of a famous American magazine, 

please click.

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Next,
The goddess's descendants

THE GODDESS'S DESCENDANTS

 

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION'S NEWLY RICH COPY THE

NOBLES' CODE

 

Politically and economically victorious but socially insecure, they model their culture on that of the defeated but prestigious adversaries by...

• Adding gravitas to monuments...

Zoom

Paris's place de la République, 1883

 New York Bay, Statue of Liberty web site

The Statue of Liberty, 1889

•  ...and bringing dignity and elegance to daily life:

Crossroad, rues Saint-Denis and Réaumur, 3rd

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Parvenus still adopt the reference...

Scarface by Brian de Palma with Al Pacino (1987) / movie website

...golded up.

       Trump Tower salon, zoom (please scroll down)

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Now view the blockbusters!