THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS

The Death of Sardanapalus (1827) – Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix was the leading French Romantic artist of the 19th century and is considered to be the greatest French painter of his period. According to the Greek writer Ctesias, Sardanapalus was the last king of Assyria. It must be mentioned that this is not true and in fact, there is little resemblance of Sardanapalus to any known Assyrian king. Anyway, Sardanapalus is portrayed as a self-indulgent king who dies in an orgy of destruction.
This depiction of his death has served as a motif in Romantic literature and art. One of the best-known works on the subject, as well as that of the poet,
The Death of Sardanapalus portrays the King overseeing, with a disinterested eye, the destruction of all his possessions in a funerary pyre of gore and excess. Among other things, it portrays a number of women in various degree of undress struggling against death by the hands of the men in the picture. Apart from its rich colors and its broad brushstrokes, the painting is famous for being an early Romantic work which challenged neoclassical traditions.