“The Burial of Atala”

An evocative painting in the romantic style of the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy Trioson, “The Burial of Atala” depicts a scene from novelistRené Chateaubriand 1801 “Atala.” The setting of the novel is North America and the southern Natchez people, but the painting is infused with medievalism and exoticism. The hooded figure burying the young heroine is a French missionary, but the painter presents him as a hermit. Among web sites are: http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/g/p-girodet5.htm and http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=836.