Death of Sardanapalus

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Death of Sardanapalus (La Mort de Sardanapale) is a painting dated at 1827 by Eugène Delacroix. Its dominant feature is the bed on which a nude prostrates herself and beseeches the apathetic Sardanapalus, who watches as his worldly possessions are destroyed. Sardanapalus ordered his possessions destroyed and concubines murdered before he sets himself on fire, once he learns that he is faced with military defeat.

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.