Liberty!

The Louvre was a magical place, practically a shrine of so many works of art I had always heard about and never dreamt of seeing. Walking down the halls of the museum felt like what I imagine it would feel like to meet your heros. (At least, for a half-way art nerd with few personal heroes.) While few things can compare to seeing statues from a culture that is still affecting the modern world millennia later (looking at you, classical Greece), one of the paintings that stuck with me the most was Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People . The woman and the small boy by her side would historically be viewed as the weaker castes, the collateral occasionally harmed by war, but never truly involved in it. However, here, the ragged men with their sea of blades and costume from every class surge behind the woman in the center. She stands high above the bodies of those already killed in the fight, barefoot, her dress awry, holding a flag high in one hand and a rifle in the other. In one sense, the painting is an image of hope that, however fragile it is assumed to be, will step ahead of the violent force of war to claim a victory, even if it seems out of reach. However, in another sense, the picture is fearsome--even the softest side of society will take up arms and kill, if necessary. This picture of hope combined with an undercurrent of fierce, unrelenting violence to me captures the essence of the French idea of freedom as expressed in its revolutions. It is hope, but it is also fierce and merciless.

To evaluate the painting with Schaeffer's rubric, the painting displays unquestionable artistic skill. It is imposing, with its life-like figures being almost life-sized, as well, and his use of detail and lighting in the foreground with blur and shadows in the back combine with the landscape to create a powerful moment of clarity in an otherwise chaotic scene. Its scale and grandeur also represent Delacroix's fascination with dramatic historical events, true to the artist's

interests and worldview. The content, in turn, does represent the spirit of the Revolution well--whether the revolution is deemed praiseworthy or not. I say this despite the fact that the picture is probably typically viewed as being overwhelmingly inspiring. The reason is that, while the feelings of hope and victory are immediately apparent, to me, the flaws associated with revolution (e.g. the far-reaching violence) are also present. The flaws do not form the focus of the painting, and aren't brought out in an overtly negative way. However, since they are still apparent, I think the painting does scores well on the content branch of Schaeffer's rubric. Last but not least, the painting is of a scale and a range of depth and colour that conveyed a sense of grandeur and drama that could be conveyed through few other mediums, scoring the painting highly on Schaeffer's fourth evaluation of how well the medium matches the content.

Bibliography:
Huyghe, René. “Eugène Delacroix.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Apr. 2017
Schaeffer, Francis A. Art and the Bible. IVP Books, 2007.