II.6. THE GODS' MODERNITY

MENU: 2.6. The gods' modernity

GODS AND ESPECIALLY GODDESSES, SYMBOLS STILL

Iconic works and deities

that monuments and parvenus still copy.

This visit begins with a suggestion for families: For that introduction and for finding the iconic works in the huge museum, please click here.

 

• The first great work of defiance

• A goddess becomes a plebeian revolutionary

• The goddess's descendants

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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 and very light figures highlight 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 du radeau de la Méduse, 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 at the height of the slave trade, for the first time since the 16th century.

• Inaugurates Romantic art, which was often rebellious.

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Until then, huge paintings had portrayed elites only. Raft is the first to honor ordinary men with a canvas of such size.  

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

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

  

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Celebrity

Announcement in a café of the 13th.  

Musée Mer Marine, in Bordeaux / Entrée to Black Paris 

Migrants flee misery and oppression by braving the dangers of the sea, work shown in a French-American blog. 

Vito Locaturolo

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Another rebel would say,

"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: later.

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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 underarm makes her underclass:

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

• Illustrates French history and Parisian insurrections...

French history summarized at Blois château

  

        

 

•  Recalls a tragedy...

The terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo journal (on January 15, 2025)

On rue des Vimoutiers, 13th / zoom

• Mobilizes...

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

•  Inspires merch...

• Is part of daily life...

• Dominates the great stairs of the 13th's district's City Hall... 

And is known world-wide.

At the introductory ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games

Zoom

By Mike Lukovich, Daily Kos, September 26, 2025

 

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Next,
The goddess's descendants

THE GODDESS'S DESCENDANTS

 

THE NEWLY RICH OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION COPY THE NOBLES' CODE

 

Politically and economically victorious but socially insecure, they model their culture on that of the prestigious vanquished. That art gives...

• Gravitas to monuments.

Zoom

Paris's place de la République, 1883

 New York Bay, Statue of Liberty web site

New York's Statue of Liberty, 1889

• Dignity and elegance to daily life.

At the "Alma Marceau" bus stop in the upscale 8th.

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Many of these figures adorn buildings in the former working-class neighborhoods, torn down after the insurrections of 1848...

 Zoom

 The insurrection of February 1848. That of June 1848 was much more terrifying.

Corner of rue Saint-Denis and rue de Turbigo, 2nd

Or that burned down at the end of La Commune:

• The nude at the summit of the rebuilt Law Court, set ablaze on May 24, 1871.

      

Zoom

 

• The Gobelins manufactory  

 Fires during the Commune, lithograph, 1871 / zoom

• Across the street:

The majestic or gracious figures

help explain why the city's insurrectionary past 

is so hard to imagine.  

End of this section.

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Next section,

II.7.

What Opéra tours won't say:

Observation and the usual story clash