Shop art print and framed art Atala au tombeau dit aussi Funérailles d'Atala by Anne-Louis Girodet

Atala au tombeau (also known as Atala's Funeral) is an oil on canvas painted by Anne-Louis Girodet in 1808 and housed in the Musée du Louvre. The scene depicted is taken from the novel Atala, which was included in Chateaubriand's Génie du Christianisme and published in 1801. It was Louis François Bertin, director of the Journal des Débats, which by Napoleon's decree became the Journal de l'Empire in 1805, who commissioned Girodet to paint a picture inspired by Chateaubriand's story "Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert". Girodet chose to depict the burial of Atala, a moment in the story about which the writer gives few details, apart from the position of the figures in the cave. This work represents a transition between neo-classical and Romantic painting. The painting is composed of three figures frozen and suspended in a funereal action, linked to each other in a single poetic movement that begins with the kneeling lover, then deepens in Atala's body and finally straightens out in the hermit's body. The scene is explicit and ekphrasic"; of course, Girodet is also the painter of ut pictura poesis". On the left, wearing a loincloth, braided hair and an earring, he desperately clasps Atala's legs between his chest, arms and legs, and rests her head on his lap. On the right, hidden in his habit of bure, his face lowered, his beard white, his hood raised, he looks at Atala, seems to be praying and delicately supports the shoulders of the innocent young girl. In [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the neoclassicism styles and romanticism styles.

 

« Atala au tombeau dit aussi Funérailles d'Atala » is kept at Louvre, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of Atala au tombeau dit aussi Funérailles d'Atala by Anne-Louis Girodet on Wikipedia.