Posted on 09/19/2016 11:07:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Eugene Delacroix's most famous painting, "Liberty Leading the People," hangs in a revered spot in Paris' Louvre Museum. Inspired by the 1830 Paris Uprising, it has been held up as an embodiment of the French national ethos, and most recently as a justification for the country's controversial burkini ban.
But "Liberty Leading the People" may also have been literally painted with people.
From at least the 16th century until as late as the early 1900s, a pigment made from mummified human remains appeared on the palettes of European artists, including Delacroix. Painters prized "mummy brown" for its rich, transparent shade. As a result, an unknown number of ancient Egyptians are spending their afterlife on art canvases, unwittingly admired in museum galleries around the world.
The use of mummy as a pigment most likely stemmed from an even more unusual use—as medicine. From the early medieval period, Europeans were ingesting and applying preparations of mummy to cure everything from epilepsy to stomach ailments. It's unclear whether Egyptian mummies were prized for the mistaken belief that they contained bitumen (the Arabic word for the sticky organic substance, which was also believed to have medicinal value, is mumiya), or whether Europeans believed that the preserved remains contained otherworldly powers.
What is clear to researchers is that early artist pigments were derived from medicines at the time, and were commonly sold alongside them in European apothecaries. And just as mummy was waning in popularity as a medical treatment, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt at the end of the 18th century unleashed a new wave of Egyptomania across the Continent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
Hmmm, broad hips, big feet. Must be from wine country...
“Do You hear the people sing?”
Late in the US Civil War, it wasn’t unheard of to “borrow” clothing from recently deceased soldiers, if it was better than their own. They had gotten pretty threadbare, especially Confederates. Shoes and boots in particular were a problem. Maybe that’s an explanation.
Would have been hilarious if the culprit was not actually Henri, but his 'friskier' little brother, Antoine. Ahhh c'est la vie...
the infowarrior
It is weird to see a body with no pants on to modern western eyes but in those times cloth was a luxury and many poor people eaked out a living as rag pickets. Also, if your clothes were rags nice pants and a body killed in combat not dead from disease would be a good get. I don’t know if most people went “commando” in those days.
Mark Twain was not my source. BTW, his real name was Samuel Clements.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of America!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Bill Clinton finally chose the wrong victim.
Mummy Brown
You can see it...its right there in her mummery glands....
No, it's just Bill Clinton's Great-Great-Grandfather.
I have seen this painting countless times and I have to confess that I never noticed the dead guy without the pants until now. Wow.
That is because your couldn’t get you eyes off what half the guys in the picture are looking at.
Awesome
The painting is a masterpiece with many allegorical symbols of the moment when a tyrannical king drove the people of affluent, middle, and lower classes to anarchy.
The naked woman carrying the flag of revolution (today the national flag of France) is a symbol of liberty stripped bare to reveal that which nurses infants of revolt but which also carries a rifle, and is looking aside to the people that follow.
The painter himself is depicted in the top hat.
The dead and naked soldiers at the base of the pyramid design depict the soldiers of the last Bourbon King left dying and naked in shame.
Different event.
Liberty Leading the People commemorated the rebellion which installed the Constitutional monarchy of Louis Philipe. The Les Mis riots were an attempt to overthrow Louis Philippe.
I've always questioned the interpretations of alleged masterpiece paintings.
Was what you said above the actual words of the artist or merely an "expert's" opinion of what they think the artist was trying to convey?
I know, but the picture reminded me of the BIG Event in Miami with Les Deplorables! LOL!
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