The 19th century brought around many different philosophies that depended on art to introduce the main points of these philosophies. The painting “Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes” painted by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson represents one of the many different philosophies called Romanticism that expressed itself mainly through different art forms, such as writing and painting. In the painting, Ossian, a character from Gaelic legend, is seen accepting a group of French soldiers into a heaven of sorts, but the underlying message almost tells a different tale. Through analyzing the lighting and color, character definition, and background images, one can see how this painting can be a division of heaven and hell and how the real world represents a living hell, but there can be a bridge between the two halves through God.

The lighting of the picture is very bright on the left side of the painting as opposed to the right side which is quite dark in comparison. If thought of in a religious context through christianity, the light side would represent the heaven while the dark side would represent hell. Another thing to consider is the light from the left side almost seems to be enveloping the right side of the painting, so in a way the painter could be trying to portray a sense that the left side (heaven) is more powerful than the right side (hell). 

The background color of each side corresponds with the lighting of the side it’s on; the background color of the left side is gold and white and the right side is black and red. The people also have significance to the side they’re on because the people on the left side are wearing white, while the people on the right are mainly wearing dark blue or black uniforms; this again associates with the common perception of heaven and hell at this time.

The attention of the audience is drawn to the middle of the painting because of the character definition; their attention is drawn because something important to the underlying message is happening in the center. The characters in the center are more defined than the others in this painting and majority of the others in the painting are staring at this “transaction” between Ossian and a French soldier. Ossian, the older man in the tunic, is bridging the gap for the soldier to cross into the heavenly part of the painting. In this instance, Ossian represents a God figure to the soldiers in the hell part of the painting. The bridging between the two halves of the painting could represent that people in hell can still make it to heaven; this is a possible representation because during this time, religion was being reevaluated because of these new philosophies.

The Romanticism movement relied on art to portray the philosophy that war is a glorious way to die; this movement was the one that pushed modern archetypes into view because followers focused a lot on imagery. We can see a couple of these archetypes in this painting. Ossian, in this painting, can represent the Sage or Noble Old Man, which is essentially a teacher or god figure to the hero, and the heroes in this painting are the soldiers. The thing is these archetypes aren’t the only imagery in this picture, there are different iconic animals on the two halves of the painting. On the left side, there is an eagle, while on the right side, there is a dog in the background. The eagle is significant to the left side because throughout Greek and Roman mythology, Zeus/Jupiter could transform into an eagle, thus representing the heavenly part of the picture because Zeus/Jupiter ruled in the heavens. The dog is significant to the right side because in Greek and Roman mythology, the dog was a symbol of Ares/Mars, who is the god of war, which is significant because the right side consists mainly of soldiers trying to cross the bridge into heaven.

This painting is more than just an ordinary painting that one could see in an art gallery somewhere. Through analyzing the lighting and color, character definition, and the background images an audience can tell there is a division between heaven and hell, the real world represents hell, but there is a way to bridge the gap between heaven and hell through God. The underlying meaning to this painting is quite important to the 19th century because it holds the reevaluated questions of the time about religion and shaped today’s way of thinking about religion.