The voyage of the Medusa and the most compelling painting in history.

"An image of hope being mocked", Julian Barnes called it in "A History of the World in 10½ Chapters". In France, "The Raft of the Medusa" by the 18th-century Romanticist Théodore Géricault added to the furore surrounding the sea disaster it depicted; in England, thousands paid good money just for a glimpse. The 35-square-metre canvas, now at the Louvre, was a template for its times, and perhaps for our own as well.

This is an illustrated short history of the ship Medusa's last journey and the man who found a way to turn catastrophe into art.

LINKS: There's a detailed analysis of how Géricault painstakingly arrived at his composition at Anna Tse's website, and a remarkable Flash study of the painting's fractal geometry, with social commentary here. You can try to see the humour in the story at HistoryHouse.com. Then there's a mention on the web of a French marine archaeological expedition finding the Medusa wreck in 1980, using state-of-the-art electronic search equipment, but I've been unable to find any details.
And finally, a more detailed version of this post is on my Dali House art blog.