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8/2/2017
ARTICLE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT

John Lambertson, the author of Delacroix's "Sardanapalus," Champmartin's

"Janissaries," and Liberalism in the Late Restoration article, is holding a doctorate degree
in nineteenth-century French painting. In this article he investigated the connection
between Eugene Delacroix and his companion Charles-Emile Champmartin in order to
clarify transformation of Delacroixs Sardanapalus subject and its contemporary
significance.
Delacroix has been good friends with Champmartin, and was captivated by
Champmartins watercolor exploration and sketches from his traveling to Ottoman
Empire in 1826. Champmartins portrayal of the Massacre of the Janissaries and
mastery of watercolors served as a model for Delacroix use of ethnic color, the
Sardanapalus subject transformation, and the idea of antihero. Considering the Death of
Sardanapalus and the Massacre of the Janissaries as artistic collaboration it is
presented as composition depicting the prophetical preaches that dangers of absolutist
power would bring revolution and the fall of reign. The complex ideas of liberalism and its
connection to the art of late French restoration are uncovering nature of political
environment.
Delacroix took the plot from George Byrons drama Sardanapalus but applied
some modifications. The artist was also influenced by a journey to the Near East and
Sultan Mahmut IIs brutal suppression of the Janissary corps. According to legend, the
last Assyrian king, who distinguished by a terrible debauchery, when his kingdom was
under siege, Sardanapalus tried to quell the rebellion, but without success. Then he
decided to take poison, but before he ordered destroy all his wealth, to kill his wives and
servants, and burn down everything with himself, turning his throne into a funeral pyre.
Delacroix deliberately replaced the throne with a luxurious bed. All characters in the
painting, with the exception of Sardanapalus and his servant with poison in his hands, are
exhausted from the hellish pain, violence and fear. This work is clearly characterizes the
French Romantic trend of the early nineteenth-century. There is a powerful energy and a
storm of negative emotions overwhelming the viewer that conveyed through bright rich
colors. The famous painting, the Raft of the Medusa, of his friend Theodore Gericault
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also influenced Delacroix, for which he posed as a model, portraying for body parts. The
pyramidal composition of Gericaults painting was used by Delacroix to position his
characters.
Lambertson mentions that Delacroix and Champmartin were regularly meeting
while painting Massacre at Chios and Massacre of the Innocents respectively. This
close friendship helped Delacroix to understand the subject more details and knowledge
of the Janissary case. Champmartins Massacre of the Janissaries shows the spectacular
and violent outcome of the revolution, and for Delacroix served as a model of oriental
despotism and armed rebellion that united carnage with inferno. Both artists conveyed
that destructive chaos and depicted the same horror and brutality of tyranny of the
Janissary affair.
Liberals understood Delacroixs and Champmartins intentions differently, during
their exhibition, they presented political violence in a chaotic visual language. Delacroix
did not hide the fact that Death of Sardanapalus is associated with Massacre in Chios,
and liberals interpreted it as an aggressive action against on French non-intervention in
the Greek Wars. During exhibition in 1828, both artists presented their paintings to the
public, where even for liberals and pro-Romantics such radicalism was overwhelming
their views. After few political and cultural discussions paintings were interpreted as
degenerate pictures.
Afterwards, some political changes occurred which caused liberals to come
forward and dismiss radical Romanticism.
Their paintings were subjected to rigorous criticism, equalized to Oriental
barbarism, and presented as open rebellion against absolute authority. Their paintings
were subjected to rigorous criticism, equalized to Oriental barbarism, and presented as
open rebellion against absolute authority. In the climax of that unstable political situation
the Death of Sardanapalus and Massacre of the Janissaries caused extreme disputes,
which lead these paintings to relate to anarchy, revolution, madness, and even crime.
Liberals and pro-Romantics alienated both radical and delusional left in politics painters
as far as they could.
John Lambertson effectively used all different kind of historical materials to show
close connection between paintings of anarchist artists. By working together, Delacroix
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and Champmartin achieved new heights in revolution. Their paintings were subjected to
rigorous criticism, equalized to Oriental barbarism, and presented as open rebellion
against absolute authority.
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Bibliography
Lambertson, John. Analysis on Delacroix's "Sardanapalus," Champmartin's "Janissaries,"
and Liberalism in the Late Restoration. Oxford Art Journal, 2002.