In terms of subject matter, it is difficult to think of more extensible subjects than the abduction (and presumably inevitable rape) of Rebecca and the death of Christ. Yet, respectively, these are the ostensible subjects of Delacroix’s The Abduction of Rebecca (hereafter Rebecca) and Manet’s The Dead Christ with Angels (hereafter Christ).
Incorporated into each of these works are the ideologies or principles of different art movements. Delacroix’s Rebecca, an oil on canvas measuring 39 ½ inches x 32 ¼, is representative of Romanticism and the romantic movement in art, literature and sculpture during Delacroix’s life (Delacroix 1). Manet’s Christ, in contrast, an oil on canvas measuring 5 ft 10 5/8 inches x 4 ft 11 inches, is a product of the principles and ideology of his era, i.e., those of Realism (Manet 1). Both works are “history paintings” in that they depict great events in history, in this case both of them biblical myths, i.e., the story of Rebecca from The Old Testament and the death of Christ in The New Testament.
Manet detested the label of “history painter” and considered it an insult to be called such. However, he wanted to paint history and events during his lifetime like the killing of the Mexican Emperor Maximilian, and others moved him to do so. However, even though Manet was no vessel of piety, having been rejected by the Salon for drinking too much absinthe just years before he painted this work, he painted this biblical painting in an effort to rebel against the realism of Courbet and the anticlericalism of that movement. Thus, Christ is a depiction of an historical event that is meant to create a movement in the present (during Manet’s present), the rebirth of biblical painting.
Manet’s technique in this work is impersonal and detached. His figures, two angels and the dead Christ, appear to be presented to us without any interpretation by the painter other than to use...