This is a romantic painting by a romantic
French artist called Delacroix. A movement
called Romanticism, whose major figure was
Delacroix himself, was a reaction against
the art academies, which were founded both
in Italy and France and after Italy and France,
pretty much all over Europe. In the academic
art world, there were very strict rules about
how to paint and draw, and those strict rules
followed the footsteps of great masters, but
by doing this, limited many artists who were
not satisfied by following anyone's footsteps
so they came up with other ideas. Romantic
artists thought that as opposed to the academic
viewing of the art, in which art is focused
on the precision of drawing and the proper
use of shadows and light, they started liking
and using at the same time, colors. So they
were happier with Ruben's paintings, happier
with the Venetian painters, such as vicious,
beautiful colors and chose them as predecessors
to follow.