The Massacre at Chios
Eugène Delacroix
1824
Scenes from the Massacre at Chios is the second major oil painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. The work is more than four meters tall, and shows some of the horror of the wartime destruction visited on the northern Aegean Sea island of Chios in the 1822 Chios massacre. A frieze-like display of suffering characters, military might, ornate and colourful costumes, terror, disease and death is shown in front of a scene of widespread desolation.
Unusual for a painting of civil ruin during this period, The Massacre at Chios has no heroic figure to counterbalance the crushed victims, and there is little to suggest hope among the ruin and despair.
Musée du Louvre, Paris · Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain · Text: Wikipedia (adapted), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Read more: collections.louvre.fr
