55TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)Science and Technology
CHAPTER 29 The Romantic Style in Art and Music 5555repress voting rights and freedom of the press, liberal lead-
ers, radicals, and journalists rose in rebellion. Delacroix
envisioned this rebellion as a monumental allegory. Its
central figure, a handsome, bare-breasted female—the per-
sonification of Liberty—leads a group of French rebels
through the narrow streets of Paris and over barricades
strewn with corpses. A bayonet in one hand and the tricol-
or flag of France in the other, she presses forward to chal-
lenge the forces of tyranny. She is champion of “the
people”: the middle class, as represented by the gentleman
in a frock coat; the lower class, as symbolized by the scruffy
youth carrying pistols; and racial minorities, as conceived
in the black saber-bearer at the left. She is, moreover,
France itself, the banner-bearer of the spirit of nationalism
that infused nineteenth-century European history.
Delacroix’s Libertyinstantly became a symbol of demo-
cratic aspirations. In 1884 France sent as a gift of friendship
to the young American nation a monumental copper and
cast-iron statue of an idealized female bearing a tablet and
a flaming torch (Figure 29.8). Designed by Frédéric-
Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), the Statue of Liberty
(Liberty Enlightening the World) is the “sister” of
Delacroix’s painted heroine; it has become a classic image
of freedom for oppressed people everywhere.
Heroic Themes in Sculpture
In sculpture as in painting, heroic subjects served the cause
of nationalism. The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792
(Figure 29.9) by François Rude (1784–1855) embodied the
dynamic heroism of the Napoleonic Era. Installed at the
foot of the Arc de Triomphe (see Figure 26.31), which
stands at the end of the Champs Elysées in Paris, the 42-
foot-high stone sculpture commemorates the patriotism of
a band of French volunteers—presumably the battalion of
Marseilles, who marched to Paris in 1792 to defend the
republic. Young and old, nude or clothed in ancient or
medieval garb (a convention that augmented dramatic
effect while universalizing the heroic theme), the spirited
members of this small citizen army are led by the allegori-
cal figure of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war. Like
Delacroix’s Liberty, Rude’s Classical goddess urges the
patriots onward. The vitality of the piece is enhanced by
deep undercutting that achieves dramatic contrasts of light
and dark. In this richly textured work, Rude captured the
revolutionary spirit and emotional fervor of this battalion’s
marching song, La Marseillaise, which the French later
adopted as their national anthem.
In America, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution, which outlawed the practice of slavery
in the United States, was met with a similar outburst of
heroic celebration. In the commemorative marble sculp-
ture,Forever Free(1867), a young slave who has broken his
chains raises his arm in victory, while his female compan-
ion kneels in grateful prayer (Figure 29.10). The artist who
conceived this remarkable work of art, Edmonia Lewis
(1845–ca. 1885) was the daughter of an African-American
father and a Chippawa mother. Like most talented young
American artists of this era, Lewis made her way to Europe
for academic training. She remained in Rome to pursue her
career and gained great notoriety for her skillfully carved
portrait busts and allegorical statues, some of which exalt-
ed heroic women in biblical and ancient history. Many of
her works are now lost and almost nothing is known of her
life after 1885.Figure 29.8 FRÉDÉRIC-AUGUSTE BARTHOLDI, Statue of Liberty (Liberty
Enlightening the World), Liberty Island (Bedloe’s Island), New York, 1871–1884.
Framework constructed by A. G. Eiffel. Copper sheets mounted on steel frame,
height 152 ft. While France gave America the statue, it did not provide the
pedestal. To assist in raising for the latter, the poet Emma Lazarus was commis-
sioned to write a poem. Her concern for the 2000 Russian-Jewish immigrants
arriving monthly in New York inspired the famous lines that begin “Give me your
tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”1836 Samuel Colt produces a six-cylinder revolver
1841 the breech-loading rifle known as the “needlegun”
is introduced
1847 an Italian chemist develops explosive nitroglycerin