Realism

Term Paper Title	Realism
# of Words	910
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.64

Realism

     At the end of the Baroque Period in the eighteenth and nineteenth century art was divided into two
distinct categories, Romanticism and Realism. Romanticism, the passion-filled works illustrating
stimulating accounts of specific events with symbolic gestures emerging from the scene, separated itself
from the more politically correct stance taken by Realists.

     A fine example of Romanticism is Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa. The brutal scene, set afloat on
the wild seas, is emphasized by the chiaroscuro modeling of the lump of figures in the center of the raft.
The X form of the composition draws your eye all around the composition. The eye starts at the top right
with the Revolutionary figure holding on to a piece of cloth in the colors of the French Revolution and then
is drawn down the diagonal. Géricault then depicts the striving, the dying, and the dead as they overlap
each other in a fierce struggle to survive. The eye is then drawn up and down the dark opposing diagonal.
This whole scene is then placed on the mighty ocean to delineate the fact that the raft is a metaphor for
France being on a hostile ocean of depravity.

     The Grande Odalisque also typifies Romanticism. Ingres, using example such as the Mannerist
Parmaganino’s Madonna with a long neck, takes the artistic license to elongate the figure of this Turkish
harem girl. Influenced by the neo-classical revival Ingres draws upon the Greek technique of flat linear
forms and depicts his model in an impossible position allow us the view of both her shoulders and her
breast; the figure is given an extra three vertebrae in order to maintain this position. Ingres endows a feeling
of sensuality into the figure instead of the paint. The chromatic effect of the composition pulls the harem
girl to the front as she is the only warm color in the piece. Ingres also gives her a very exotic feel with her
accessories: the peacock fan, velvet drapes, and other exorbitant furniture. Ingres also uses Raphael’s
typical female head and a gaze that says, “You have just interrupted me,” but you don’t know what you
interrupted further intriguing the voyeur.

     In contrast to the almost mystical passion and intrigue of Grande Odalisque is Rue Transnonain.
This lithograph by Daumier is realism in the truest sense. Daumier depict the social injustice of the
innocent killing of all the workers in a housing block. Daumier draws in the viewer with the initial scene of
a man in his pajamas lying dead against his bed. The viewer is then drawn to pay closer attention to the
work. In careful examination of the piece the viewer sees a baby crushed under the man with just its head...

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