Death of Sardanapalus 1827

As we already know Delacroix was a famous artist during the nineteenth century. And one of his most famous paintings is







The Death of Sardanapalus.







Sardanapalus knew what I was talking about when it came to names





Now if you don't know much about The story Don't be embarassed I will fill you in. Sardanapalus was the last King of Nineveh and he was living it up in his palace. His kingdom was under attack by barbarians, He of course being a good king tried to stop it with his army. But it did no good as the last city of the kingdom was taken, Sardanapalus was a sore loser and didn't want the barbarians to get all of his nice stuff or his wives (he was a bad at sharing) So he sat on his bed set the room on fire with all of his treasures and had his wives killed infront of him.







Now if I were his wife I would think being sold into slavery sounded a little better then being stabbed and then burned alive but thats just me.








This picture was considered sublime at the time for its awe striking content!





Although I would agree that its pretty...graffic I mean its about this king who is murdering all of his wives so they won't be taken as slaves. (clearly the king was only thinking of them.)




I dont think Sardanapalus thought it throw very well, he wasn't being very creative



his wives are being murdered, it wasn't take some poison they were being stabbed in the chest. or wasn't there a back door the could sneak out of...






I wouldn't say this is my favoirte painting by Delacroix but you have to admit that its pretty awesome for having such a huge contraversy. I love how its considered Sublime and its so action pack and very posed for the dramatic effect. Although I feel Sardanapalus doesn't look very conserned. He looks very stoic for all the disaster that is going on around him.








There is no doubt that Delacroix is a master at the human figure all of the people look so real. I know that he practiced several times drawing figures drapped over objects so he could get it just right for this painting.


This doesn't even cover the amount of time he spent drawing and redrawing the figures. He really wanted to get it right. Gotta admire him for that.

I think though it had a pretty big contraversy because France saw themselves in the picture with all the troubles they had and were having kind of viewed as self-destructive.