Death of Sardanapalus (La Mort de Sardanapale) is an oil painting on canvas, dated 1827 by Eugène Delacroix. Its dimensions are 392 x 496 cm or 12′ 1" x 16′ 3". It currently hangs in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
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Its dominant feature is a large bed on which a nude prostrates herself and beseeches the apathetic Sardanapalus for mercy. Sardanapalus had ordered his possessions destroyed and concubines murdered before immolating himself, once he learnt that he was faced with military defeat.
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Death of Sardanapalus is based on a play, Sardanapalus, written by Lord Byron, and is a work of the era of Romanticism. This painting uses rich, vivid and warm colors, and broad brushstrokes. It inspired a cantata by Hector Berlioz, La mort de Sardanpale (1830), and also Franz Liszt's opera, Sardanapale (1845-52, unfinished).
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Sardanapalus
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