Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi

Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
Artist	Eugène Delacroix
Year	1826
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	208 cm × 147 cm (82 in × 58 in)
Location	Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux

Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (French: La Grèce sur les ruines de Missolonghi) is an 1826 oil painting by French painter Eugène Delacroix, and now preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. This painting was inspired by the Third Siege of Missolonghi by the Ottoman forces in 1826, during which many people of the city after the long-time siege (almost a year) decided to attempt a mass breakout (sortie) to escape famine and epidemics. The attempt resulted in a disaster, with the larger part of the Greeks slain.

Analysis

Greece is depicted as a kneeling woman who occupies the major part of the painting. She is wearing a traditional Greek costume, her chest being widely bare, and she spreads her arms as a sign of sadness. The hand of a dead victim can be seen protruding from the rubble, beneath her feet. In the background, a dark-complexioned man wearing a yellow turban, who symbolizes the enemy, is planting a flag in the ground.^[1]

The painting borrows elements from Christianity. Indeed, "Greece adopts the attitude of praying in the early centuries of Christianity. The blue coat and white robe, traditionally attributed to the Immaculate Conception, reinforces this analogy to a secular figure of Mary here. The strength of the image is the sharp contrast between the traditional allegory which induces an idealization of the model, and processing of the scene without any concession to the ideal."^[2]

References

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Eugène Delacroix

Paintings

• The Entombment of Christ (1820)
• The Barque of Dante (1822)
• Mademoiselle Rose (c. 1820–1824)
• Head of an Old Greek Woman (1824)
• Orphan Girl at the Cemetery (c. 1824)
• The Massacre at Chios (1824)
• Horse Frightened by a Thunderstorm (c. 1824)
• Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1826)
• The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan (1826, 1835, 1856)
• The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero (1826)
• Louis d'Orléans Showing Off His Mistress (1826)
• Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter (1826–1830)
• Woman Stroking a Parrot (1827)
• The Death of Sardanapalus (1827, 1844)
• Cromwell at Windsor Castle (1828)
• The Murder of the Bishop of Liège (1829)
• Liberty Leading the People (1830)
• A Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother (1830–1831)
• The Battle of Nancy (1831)
• Cromwell with the Coffin of Charles I (1831)
• The Picador (1832)
• Arab Rider Charging (1832)
• Women of Algiers (1834, 1847–1849)
• The Natchez (1834–35)
• Christ on the Cross (1835)
• The Battle of Taillebourg, 21 July 1242 (1837)
• The Kaïd, A Moroccan Chief (1837)
• Convulsionists of Tangiers (1837–1838)
• Warrior by a Tomb (1838)
• Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand (1838)
• Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople (1840)
• Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (1840)
• The Sultan of Morocco (1845)
• The Abduction of Rebecca (1846)
• The Bride of Abydos (pre-1849, 1843–1849)
• Christ Asleep during the Tempest (c. 1853)
• Lion Devouring a Rabbit (c. 1855)
• The Two Foscari (1855)
• The Lion Hunt (1855)
• Ovid Among the Scythians (1859, 1862)
• Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable (1860)
• Horses Leaving the Sea (1860)
• Tiger with a Tortoise (1862)

Drawings

• Sunset (c. 1850)

People

• Charles-François Delacroix (father)
• Charles-Henri Delacroix (brother)
• Henriette de Verninac (sister)
• Jean-François Oeben (grandfather)
• Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
• Henri-François Riesener
• Jean-Henri Riesener
• Théodore Géricault
• Richard Parkes Bonington
• Paul Huet
• Ary Scheffer
• Pierre-Narcisse Guérin

Museums

• Musée national Eugène Delacroix, Paris

Related

• Homage to Delacroix (1864 Henri Fantin-Latour painting)
• Delacroix (crater)