Exhibited at the Salon of 1827 where it caused an immediate scandal, Eugène Delacroix's massive 'Death of Sardanapalus' (3.9 × 4.9 m) draws on Byron's play to stage the last king of Assyria reclining on his pyre as he orders the slaughter of his concubines, slaves, and horses so that nothing he owns should outlive him. A cascade of red textile, writhing nude bodies, and rearing animals spills diagonally across the canvas in one of the most violent and orientalising compositions in Western painting. Critics called it the very manifesto of French Romanticism.

Exhibition Venue

Louvre Museum

Paris, France