Rude La Marseillaise

From Art and Politics Paper: The Romantic spirit influenced all media during the early 19th century. Sculptors, just like the painters of the period, produced a combination of Neoclassical and Romantic work. The large group La Marseillaise is placed on the infamous Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was created by Francois Rude and displays an allegory of the national glories of France. La Marseillaise depicts the volunteers of 1792 departing to defend the nation’s borders against the foreign enemies of the revolution.

The Roman goddess of war, Bellona, soars above the patriots of varying ages, rallying them on with her thundering battle cry. The violence of motion and dense mass of bodies relate closely to the compositional method of dramatic Romanticism. La Marseillaise is very similar to Gericault and Delacroix in this way. The allegorical figure in La Marseillaise is the “sister” to Delacroix’s Liberty. The two figures are wearing the same patriotic cap. The two works are incredibly similar, besides the costumes and time period in focus (Kleiner 836).