Originaltext - Englisch - Raft of Medusa

The start of the work was slow and difficult. The difficulty was to choose from the drama of the shipwreck narrative a single, significant, and pictorially effective moment. Gericault looked at scenes of battle, torment and death in the works of the masters, like Michelangelo, Rubens and Gros, for the appropriate feeling and expression to his subjects.