French Revolution!

This is a powerful painting that provides a greater significance than people can imagine. In these times during the eighteenth century, painters held history at the tips of their paint brushes. They could create history themselves and convey it anyway they wanted. The idea of war implied in this painting is one of necessity and glory. This was a war that had to be fought for the welfare of the people. This painting depicts a war with a cause, a "just war," that was fought for life and freedom denied to a suffering population oppressed by a cruel monarchy. The persistence of those behind Lady Liberty being led into a massacre, a massacre with a cause. It is intense because these are not soldiers, but the poor and stepped upon fighting for their rights rather than glory or an immortalized name. The dramatic scene of a young child going to battle fearlessly, ready to die for a cause in the time even before the prime of his life. The personification of Lady Liberty tells the observer of the painting that she is the driving force, the direction and goal for the war. It tells me Delacroix is in favor of the Revolution and believes in the power of a woman and uses the idea of a woman to be the object of achievement. The woman must be protected and fought for, just as their rights. If you were to simply imagine Liberty as a man, it would not have the same effect.