Part 7 in a 10 part series. To view other entries into the War Paint Series, follow the link.
La Liberté guidant le peuple is a seminal piece of art by French Romanticist Eugène Delacroix. Finished in 1830, after the July Revolution, which saw the toppling and exile of monarch King Charles X of France. It has become a symbol of the Republic, and the central figure, Marianne, bearing the tricolor flag and a Phrygian cap, is a timeless figure, the same represented by the Statue of Liberty.
Part 5 in a 10 part series.
Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 is an iconic painting by one of the great masters. The image depicts the execution of prisoners following the Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid against Napoleon’s invading forces. The events form part of the Peninsular War. Napoleon was invited into Spain by the Spanish King Charles IV. The pretext was that the two nations would conquer and divide up Portugal. Napoleon had other ideas and the expeditionary force showed no signs of leaving.
On May 2nd, the population of Madrid took to arms. Oddly enough, this is the second painting in a row in this series to deal with an uprising against Napoleonic occupational forces. Once unrest was inevitable, the French gave the order that anyone involved was to be shot. Fighting broke out in the city and the French forces quickly put it down. Some hundred or so French soldiers were killed along with numerous Madrileños.
Part 4 in a 10 part series.
The revolt of Cairo took place in 1798, shortly after Napoleon Bonaparte and his French forces took the city during their occupation of Egypt. The campaign was fought to destabilize British power in the Near East and India and, ostensibly, to spread the ideals of Republicanism. After taking Cairo without a shot fired in July of that year, tension began to mount. On October 21, in a surprise attack, citizens of Cairo rose up in revolt against the French stationed there, killing French general Dominique Martin Dupuy, among hundreds of others, in the process. Napoleon returned to the city and his response was both swift and brutal. After herding the belligerents into the Great Mosque, which had been fortified and armed by the locals for the days events, he opened fire with his cannon. French forces then massacred the Egyptians who’d taken refuge there, killing or wounding some 5,000.
A group of Thugs stabbing the eyes of recently murdered travelers, prior to throwing them into the well. Artist unknown, 1830’s.
The place is India, in the era of the British Raj.
Imagine traveling on a dark road. You and some traveling companions are making your way to a distant city. Perhaps you’re a merchant with wares to sale. The roads are dangerous, especially at night, and there’s safety in numbers. Your party allows yet another fellow traveler into your caravan, someone unknown to you. It’s not an uncommon occurrence in your day. After a few days on the road together, after your confidence is gained, it strikes. You never see it coming. Strangled. Mutilated. Dumped in a well or a shallow grave. Nothing is ever seen or heard of you again.
The event described above was a creation of mine. An event that never happened, yet happened 1,000 times…and 1,000 times again. The perpetrator of the crime was a member of the Thuggee cult, which incidentally gave the English language the word thug. They were feared by all and the extent of their crimes may never be known. Thug Behram, a leader of the cult during the early 1800’s, claimed to have murdered 125 men with his own hands, while attending to a total of 931 murders! If the latter total were correct, it could be claimed that Behram were the most prolific serial killer in history.
Image of the last emperor of the Inca, Tupac Amaru. Author and date unknown.
The name Tupac is known around the world. One of the most charismatic rappers of the 90’s has seen his image posthumously plastered on shirts and posters around the globe. Few in the Western World would not have heard of him. But the name Tupac was not an original. It’s an Inca name, one steeped in history, with origins going back to the emperors of the Andes.
I admit that my first encounter with the name was due to the rapper. Having grown up near San Francisco and graduating from high school in 1995, I was well and truly familiar with the poster boy of West Coast hip hop. But shortly after the rapper’s death, a Marxist revolutionary group in Peru took over the Japanese embassy, holding hostages for over 100 days before a commando raid by government forces ended the standoff. I became more interested in the name behind the deceased emcee.
Title: Liberty Leading the People (28th July 1830) by Eugène Delacroix
La Liberté guidant le peuple is a seminal piece of art by French Romanticist Eugène Delacroix. Finished in 1830, after the July Revolution, which saw the toppling and exile of monarch King Charles X of France. It has become a symbol of the Republic, and the central figure, Marianne, bearing the tricolor flag and a Phrygian cap, is a timeless figure, the same represented by the Statue of Liberty.
Yesterday Unhinged 