Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Slave
Ship,
Turner
- COMPOSITION
- Figures and ship not immediately obvious: as if
engulfed by the storm. Could also signify the
disregard the slaves were treated with
- Horizon is tilted; viewer
sways as if with
sea-sickness
- LIGHT
- The overall light is dark and red,
gives air of sombre violence
- the light that shears
through the sky could
represent God and
his retribution
- CONTEXT
- Painted at the
end of his life and
seen as a joke in
comparison to the
Rococo style of
the time
- Painted in
response to
the call for
slavery to be
banned in
1840
- Paints a slave ship from the
1700s called the Zong: The
captain, faced with sickness
on board, threw over 130
African slaves overboard with
hands and feet tied so he
could claim the insurance for
"losses at sea"
- Photography
recently invented
- TECHNIQUE
- Heavy emphasis
on facture: paints
with thick brushes,
pallet knife, rags
and even hands
- Modern approach as
focus on the
expression: violent
technique reflects
violence of the scene
- Turner intrigued by the
atmosphere of the painting
rather than the detail, emphasis
on the hectic cruelty of the
disaster
- CONTENT
- A Ship is
battered by a
powerful storm,
just off-centre
to the painting
- The sky is raging
with the typhoon:
red clouds roll in
from the right and a
shear of light cuts
through the centre
of the painting
- In the foreground,
bodies and fish alike
seem to be thrashing
for survival in the
frothing water
- INTERPRETATION
- More than just a
documented historical
event, Turner captures
the inhumanity of
man-kind
- The monstrous sea creatures represent the
monsters and demons of our subconscious,
hinting at what we are capable of beneath the
surface
- Turner illustrates the
unequivocal power of
nature: the sublime
- the patch of blue sky,
tucked into the left hand
corner, could represent
the hope of a future
without slavery