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The Death of Sardanapalus
Eugène Delacroix · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
- Date
- 1827
- Dimensions
- 392 x 496 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
The Death of Sardanapalus, inspired by a play by Lord Byron, shows the legendary Assyrian king who, besieged in his palace and facing defeat, ordered that all his treasures, horses and concubines be destroyed before he died on his pyre.
A closer look
Sardanapalus reclines on a huge red bed at the top of the canvas, chin on his hand, watching coldly as the massacre unfolds around him. Servants stab naked women, a horse is dragged in rearing, gold vessels and jewels tumble in a chaotic, swirling diagonal of bodies and fabrics. Delacroix used blazing reds, golds and flesh tones, with free, dynamic brushwork and no clear perspective. At the Salon of 1827 the painting caused outrage for its violence, sensuality and disorder; it became a manifesto of Romanticism.
