Saturday, February 3, 2018
Viva la Vida
So I don't know if anybody in class realized this or if many of y'all listen to Coldplay, but said band used Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People as the cover art of their album Viva La Vida (: When Chloe, Ally and I were studying Manet in class and I came across this painting in Fleming's book, I internally freaked because I love Coldplay. Political revolution is a major theme on their album and particularly on the title track. In the song lyrics of "Viva la Vida," Coldplay recounts the revolution from the opposite perspective as Delacroix, singing on behalf of the overthrown king: "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!" Instead of characterizing the deposed king as a one dimensional evil tyrant, Coldplay paints a picture of an ultimately regretful king. Once a revolutionary fighting for justice himself, in this song, the king (retrospectively) realizes that along the way he lost track of how to rightfully lead his people and eventually turned into the very despot that he originally fought to overthrow: "One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me. I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand." Kinda sad, if you ask me. But the song's chorus is hopeful, much like the meaning behind Frida Kahlo's 1954 painting Viva La Vida (Chris Martin said he was indeed inspired by Frida Kahlo's painting as well) and the album cover art by Delacroix.
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1 comment:
I'm really glad you posted on this, Margot!
When I was in 4th grade chorus class we sang this song, and I loved it, but I had totally forgotten about the cover art!
On your note about a king who was once a revolutionary fighting for justice and now realizes his people are about to mount a revolution against him...
As we talked about, this painting commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, during which King Charles X was overthrown and Louis Philippe (the "Citizen King") came to power. One of the inciting reasons for which Charles was overthrown was his July Ordinances, which among other things, censored the press and excluded the middle class from voting. In fact, one of the cries of the mobs was, "Vive la Charte!" which means, "Long live the Charter!"
However, during the French Revolution of 1848, Louis Philippe's July Monarchy itself was then overthrown. The French people had become more and more dissatisfied with his conservative and monarchical tendencies. In February of 1848, when Paris held its banquet of reformers against the king's wishes, barricades and the National Guard came into play, and blood was spilled.
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