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The Raft of the Medusa is the name applied to an infamous catastrophic shipwreck of the French ship Medusa (original French name: La Méduse) in 1816 in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa. The incident, which led to the demise of 140 crew and passengers, was popularized throughout Europe by account of survivors, leading to a scandal in the French government because of the incompetence of the ship's captain and the feeble rescue effort. It was later the subject of several notable paintings, the most famous one of which is by Théodore Géricault and hangs in the Louvre. Download high resolution version (864x586, 539 KB)Painting, by Theodore Gericault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Théodore Géricaults Insane Théodore Géricault (September 26, 1791 in Rouen, Normandy - January 26, 1824) was a famous French painter, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings. ...
1818 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...
1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. ...
A shipwreck is the remains of a ship after it has sunk or been beached as a result of a crisis at sea. ...
1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ...
World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...
The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ...
Théodore Géricaults Insane Théodore Géricault (September 26, 1791 in Rouen, Normandy - January 26, 1824) was a famous French painter, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings. ...
I.M. Peis Louvre Pyramid: the entrance to the galleries lies below the glass pyramid The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre, pronounced in French) in Paris, France, is one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. ...
History In 1816 the new Bourbon government of France sent a small fleet to officially receive the British handover of the port of Saint-Louis in Senegal to France. The fleet consisted of four ships; the Loire, the brig Argus, the Echo and the Medusa. Medusa was to carry the passengers, including the appointed French governor of Senegal, Colonel Julien-Désire Schmaltz and his wife Reine Schmaltz. In addition there were a total of 400 passengers, including 160 of the crew. Following the ousting of Napoleon I of France in 1814, the Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. ...
Saint-Louis or Saint-Louis du Sénégal (locally called Ndar in the Wolof language) is a city in the northwest of Senegal near the mouth of the Senegal River (, ). It is the capital of the Saint-Louis Region and has a population of 154,555 (2002 census). ...
In sailing, a brig is a vessel with two masts at least one of which is square rigged. ...
A governor is also a device that regulates the speed of a machine. ...
The French Ministry of the Marine made the mistake of appointing inexperienced Frigate-Captain Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys to lead the fleet. He had mainly worked as a customs officer more than twenty years previously and had worked against Napoleon. His crew did not particularly appreciate him, because they had served with Napoleon during his reign.
The fleet left Port de Rochefort on June 17. Medusa sailed quickly away before the rest of the fleet. On July 17, it ran aground in shallow water off the west coast of Africa on the Arguin Bank. June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ...
July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ...
The Banc d’Arguin is a large shallow water area on the Northern Mauritanian coast. ...
At first the crew tried to release her by throwing heavy items overboard, but de Chaumereys stopped the effort. Eventually he decided to abandon ship. Because there were only six lifeboats, he made a raft out of masts and crossbeams to carry the rest of the crew. Dignitaries – 250 of them – took the lifeboats and attempted to tow the raft. The raft was too flimsy to keep all the rest (149 men and one woman) afloat. Seventeen men decided to stay on Medusa. The rest were left with no food and water to speak of. For the 1944 movie, see Lifeboat (film). ...
Those in lifeboats soon noticed that the idea of towing the raft was impractical. De Chaumereys decided to cut the rope and leave the rest of the crew to its fate, four miles (6 km) off shore. (Not correct: it was Governor Schmaltz's raft that was first to drop the tow line to the raft.)
On the raft, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Men began to throw wine and flour out of spite and fight among themselves. On the first night 20 men – whites and Africans, soldiers and officers – were killed or committed suicide. Rations dwindled ever more rapidly and on the fourth day some on the raft resorted to cannibalism. On the eighth day, the fittest began throwing the weak and wounded overboard. A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ...
Cannibalism in Brazil in 1557 as described by Hans Staden. ...
Thirteen days later, when Argus found the raft almost by accident, there were only 15 survivors remaining. Argus took them to Saint-Louis to recover. Five of the survivors, including Jean Charles, the last African crew member, died within days. Three of the seventeen men that had decided to stay on the Medusa were later recovered alive. British naval officers helped the survivors to return to France because aid from the French Minister of the Marine was not forthcoming. Saint-Louis or Saint-Louis du Sénégal (locally called Ndar in the Wolof language) is a city in the northwest of Senegal near the mouth of the Senegal River (, ). It is the capital of the Saint-Louis Region and has a population of 154,555 (2002 census). ...
Medusas surviving surgeon Henri Savigny submitted his account to the authorities. It was leaked to an anti-Bourbon newspaper, the Journal des débats, and appeared on September 13, 1816. The matter became a scandal embroiled in French internal politics and officials tried to cover it up. De Chaumereys was found guilty in the court martial at Port de Rochefort. Journal des Débats - Portrait of Monsieur Bertin, director, by Ingres The Journal des Débats is a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times. ...
September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ...
1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ...
Savigny and ship's geographer Alexander Corréard released their own account (Naufrage de la frégate la Méduse) of the incident in 1817. It went through five editions by 1821 and was also published in an English translation.
Géricault's depiction Impressed by accounts of the shipwreck, the 25-year-old artist Théodore Géricault decided to make a painting based of the incident and contacted the writers in 1818. In order to make the painting as realistic as possible, Géricault made sketches of bodies in the morgue of the Hospital Beaujon. His finished painting, however, toned down the horror of the event by depicting the raft at the moment of rescue, with the Argus on the horizon. 1818 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...
Géricault used friends as models, notably the painter Eugène Delacroix as the figure in the foreground with his face to the ground and arms outstretched. The painting, which was on the epic scale of a history painting yet based on a current news story, first appeared in the Paris Salon in 1819 and was a sensation. It currently resides in the Louvre. Eugène Delacroix (portrait by Nadar) Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 - August 13, 1863) was an important painter from the French romantic period. ...
Categories: Art stubs | Painting ...
Honoré Daumier satirized the bourgeoises scandalized by the Salons Venuses, 1864 The Paris Salon (French: Salon de Paris) is the official art exhibit of the Académie des beaux-arts in Paris, France. ...
Portrayals in film - Iradj Azimi. Le Radeau de la Méduse, French film, 1998
- Cast: Jean Yanne (Chaumareys), Claude Jade (Reine Schmaltz), Philippe Laudenbach (Julien Schmaltz), Laurent Terzieff (Théodore Géricault), Daniel Mesguich (Lt. Coudein), Alain Macé (Henri Savigny), Jean Desailly (La Tullaye), Rufus (Soldier musician).
Le Radeau de la Méduse (The Raft of the Medusa) is a french film by Iradj Azimi (1998) Starring: Jean Yanne (Duroy de Chaumareys) Daniel Mesguich (Lt. ...
1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
Jean Yanne (July 18, 1933 - May 22, 2003) was a French actor and film director. ...
Claude Jade (born 8 October 1948 as Claude Marcelle Jorré) is a French actress. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Rufus is a name that could refer to one of the following: Rufus (band), a 1970s/1980s funk band fronted by Chaka Khan Rufus (BitTorrent client), an open-source BitTorrent client Rufus, the forgotten 13th apostle played by Chris Rock in the film Dogma Rufus the naked mole rat from...
Portrayals in literature - A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes — a semi-fictional work that attempts to deglaze and satirise popular historical legends. The chapter Shipwreck is devoted to the analysis of this painting. The first half narrates the incidents leading to the shipwreck and the survival of the crew members. The second half of the chapter renders a dark platonic and satirical analysis of the painting itself, and Gericault's "softening" the impact of crude reality in order to preserve the aestheticism of the work.
- The untranslated second volume of Peter Weiss's novel The Aesthetics of Resistance (Die Ästhetik des Widerstands) opens with a detailed historical account of the Medusa and subsequently describes Géricault's painting.
A History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a semi-fictional literary work by Julian Barnes. ...
Barnes as Francophile and Francophone in Bernard Pivots Double je (France 2, March 2005) Julian Patrick Barnes (born January 19, 1946 in Leicester) is a contemporary British writer whose novels and short stories have been seen as examples of postmodernism in literature. ...
Peter Weiss (November 8, 1916 - May 10, 1982) was a German writer, painter and artist. ...
Théodore Géricaults Insane Théodore Géricault (September 26, 1791 in Rouen, Normandy - January 26, 1824) was a famous French painter, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings. ...
Other portrayals in popular culture The second album by Irish folk-rock group The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, uses the famous painting as its album cover, with the faces of the band members replacing those of the men on the raft. Also, on their album Hell's Ditch they pay tribute to the incident with the song "The Wake of the Medusa". The Pogues in concert, 2004 The Pogues are a popular Anglo Irish folk rock band of the 1980s and 90s. ...
Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash is a 1985 album by The Pogues, their second. ...
Hells Ditch is the fifth full-length album by The Pogues, and the last to feature frontman Shane MacGowan as a member. ...
The layout of the scene is copied in the French comic book Astérix Légionnaire (Goscinny/Uderzo, 1967) to depict yet another shipwreck of Astérix's recurring pirate enemies. The captain's comment is the pun, "Je suis médusé" ("I am dumbfounded"); Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge in their English translation preserved the humour, having the captain say, "We've been framed, by Jericho!" A shrewd, cunning little warrior; all perilous missions are immediately entrusted to him. ...
René Goscinny (August 14, 1926 – November 5, 1977) Polish- French author, editor and humorist, who is best known for the comic strip Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and the comic strip Lucky Luke. // Early life René was born in Paris in 1926, to Stanislaw Simkha Goscinny...
Albert Uderzo Albert Uderzo (born April 25, 1927 in France) is a French comic book artist, and scriptwriter. ...
A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a figure of speech which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. ...
References - Alexander McKee. Wreck of the Medusa, The Tragic Story of the Death Raft (1975)
See also This list of shipwrecks is of those sunken ships whose remains have been located. ...
This is a list of major political scandals in France: 1816 shipwreck of and search for French frigate Medusa off the west coast of Africa Dreyfus Affair, 1894 treason conviction of Alfred Dreyfus - exposed by writer Emile Zola on January 13, 1898 The Ben Barka affair, 1965 disappearance of the...
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