The Raft of the Medusa is an oil painting by the French artist Théodore Gèricault. This painting depicts the wreck of the French ship “La Méduse”, which crashed off the coast of Mauritania on 5 July 1816, causing the death of 147 people. The remaining 30 sailors were left adrift on a raft they had built. The remaining sailors survived on the raft for only a few days, eventually resorting to cannibalism until they died. The crash of the Méduse became the symbol of the incompetence of the French monarchy. After the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte took power. The conflict was initiated by the Sixth Coalition and the bloodline of King Louis XVI was restored to power in France. After two years in power, the failure of “La Meduse” turned popular opinion against the royal family who were overthrown again by two years 13 years later. The painter Théodore Gèricault did his best to use compassion to capture the complete desperation of the county and the ruin felt by the sailors that day. The main thing that stands out in this painting is the uneven weight of the painting. The weight of the painting is at the bottom of the semicircle painting. The uneven balance of weight makes it impossible for the painting to have symmetry. Which adds further sense of doom and desperation to the crash. Symmetry makes a painting appear unified and organized. As in a landscape painting, the painting's balanced weight and clear symmetry add a calming effect and allow you to take in the entire scene. This piece uses the exact opposite approach of symmetry and weight balance, to create a chaotic and disorganized piece. . Speaking of doom and desperation in the face of this tragedy, in the painting the raft appears to be at...... middle of paper ......ye captures the horror and tragedy of the event. Gèricault uses compositional elements to capture the pure emotion that the sailors feel. The first use of the composition is the imbalance of the painting, which adds to the sense of hopelessness and hopelessness of the situation. . The next use of composition is the use of a disproportionate scale of the people in the painting. They are much larger in size than the raft they are all floating on. This illustrates the understanding that not everyone will survive this accident. There are too many people trying to survive on such a small raft. The final compositional element used to tell the story is the use of variety to communicate the downfall of the station. Gèricault uses the composition to capture the true emotion of desperation and doom that the surviving crew are facing while floating on their doomed raft.