The Medusa Radel

Famous painting if it is, The Radeau de la Méduse today perfectly embodies humanity as a party to drift on the waves of history, illusory hope, loss of landmarks and certain shipwreck. Michelet was the first to put Géricault’s masterpiece in touch with the destiny of our civilization: “It was our entire society that embarked on this raft of the Medusa”…

As artists often do, the painter was able to draw from a topical fact a highly allegorical work: the shipwreck of a raft in which 150 passengers of a stranded ship had taken refuge, leaving in 1816 to colonize Senegal, for lack of sufficient boats. These unfortunate ones eventually fought and devoured the dead, only ten survivors were saved in extremis.

This could prefigure the future of humanity if the devastation of the planet continues on its path: an improvised raft, overloaded with people and abandoned to its fate, without any of the occupants knowing what to do to avoid the carnage…