Théodore GéricaultFrança, 1791–1824A Balsa da Medusa
Le radeau de la Méduse
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Onde está «A Balsa da Medusa» hoje? Museu do Louvre, Salle 700, Aile Denon, Niveau 1, Paris. Sim, exposta agora. Verificado 26 de setembro de 2026.
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Sobre a pintura
Balsa da Medusa (em francês: Le Radeau de la Méduse) é uma pintura a óleo executada entre 1818 e 1819 pelo pintor da época do romantismo e litógrafo Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). Está exposta no Museu do Louvre, Paris, e é considerada um ícone da pintura ocidental.
Obcecado pelo naufrágio da Fragata de Medusa, que inspirou a obra, Géricault chegou a entrevistar sobreviventes, alguns deles forçados ao canibalismo na tragédia. Entre os passageiros que teve contato, estavam o engenheiro Alexandre Corréard (que também havia participado da construção da balsa) e o médico cirurgião Jean-Baptiste-Henri Savigny.
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A Fragata havia partido da França, e navegava em direção a Senegal, na África, com intenções de colonização do país. Relatos da época afirmam que Géricault teria tido a inspiração para o quadro a partir de uma notícia sobre o naufrágio, ocorrido em 1816. A pintura representa o momento logo após a embarcação começar a afundar, em que a tripulação e os passageiros não conseguiram salvar-se com os botes de emergência. A cena retrata as personagens lutando à deriva.
Pode-se perceber alguns elementos de pintura religiosa pelo conceito e pela montagem dos personagens, que são retratados como consagrados, e até mártires.
Pormenores
- Número de inventário
- INV 4884
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Fontes
- Museu do Louvre
- Imagem: Museu do Louvre — © 2015 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado
Na vida de Théodore Géricault
A vida inteira1816–1817
Naples and Rome: the shock of Michelangelo
Géricault visited Naples, drawing the landscapes and people, but spent most of his time in Rome. The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel shook him: Michelangelo's monumentality of form inspired his pen drawings, such as “Man Felling a Bull”, among the most interesting made in Rome.
autumn 1817
The book on the wreck of the Méduse reaches Géricault
In the autumn of 1817 the book “The Wreck of the Frigate Medusa” appeared, in which the eyewitnesses, the geographer-engineer Alexandre Corréard and the physician Henri Savigny, described the thirteen-day drift of the raft after the ship ran aground off the coast of Mauritania. The book reached Géricault, who saw in it the subject for the large painting he had long dreamed of.
1817–1818
Investigating the disaster: survivors, a model raft, morgues
Géricault re-created the event by studying the available materials and meeting witnesses: he got to know Corréard and Savigny, a carpenter from the Méduse made a scale model of the raft for him, and the artist modelled wax figures himself. He visited hospital morgues, drawing dead heads, emaciated bodies and severed limbs, and the preparation ended with a trip to Le Havre, where he painted studies of sea and sky.
1819
“The Raft of the Medusa” sparks a political controversy at the Salon
When first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819, “The Raft of the Medusa” ignited political controversy: it indicted a corrupt establishment, in which the captain had left the crew and passengers to die, but also dramatized the eternal struggle of man against nature.
12 June – 30 December 1820
London: 50,000 visitors and 20,000 francs
The entrepreneur Bullock exhibited “The Raft of the Medusa” in London from 12 June to 30 December 1820; about 50,000 people saw it, critics called it a masterpiece, and its author was compared to Michelangelo and Caravaggio. Géricault was entitled to a third of the ticket receipts and received 20,000 francs.
1821–1824
Illness and falls from horses after his return from England
After returning to Paris from England Géricault was often ill, and his condition was made worse by several falls during horseback rides.
