This painting deals with a terrifying massacre and refers to an historical event when twenty thousand Greeks were killed by Turks on the Greek island of Chios. While there are references to nature in the representation of the landscape and the sky, the central focus of the work is the terrible and emotionally moving historical event and its human effect.

The painting is intended to evoke a response in the viewer and it is this reaction or response that is so important in understanding the Romantic elements of the work.

As suggested, the Romantic artists were concerned with conveying intensity of life and in exploring and expressing passion and feelings that went beyond or transcended ordinary mundane events. This is the reason why Delacroix chose the subject matter that he did for this painting. The painting elicits a feeling of intense drama and a sense of heightened emotion at the...
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