Home/Symbols/Diagonal mast and torn sailDiagonal mast and torn sail SymbolismBroken guidance and engineered instability; a vessel without control or authorityCommon ThemesRace & ethnicityTyranny & oppressionHeroism & the testFate vs. free willMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Power & authorityHuman vs. natureGrief & mourningArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe Raft of the MedusaTheodore Gericault (1818–1819)The Raft of the Medusa stages a modern catastrophe as epic tragedy, pivoting from corpses to a surge of <strong>collective hope</strong>. The diagonal mast, torn sail, and a Black figure waving a cloth toward a tiny ship compress the moment when despair turns to <strong>precarious rescue</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
