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  • Falls of the Kaaterskill
  •  
  • The Clove, Catskills
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  • The Course of Empire: The Savage State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire
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  • The Course of Empire: Destruction
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  • The Course of Empire: Desolation
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  • View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After A Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
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  • View on the Catskill, Early Autumn
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  • The Voyage of Life: Childhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Youth (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Manhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Old Age (First Set)
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  • The Architect's Dream
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  • Mount Etna From Taormina, Sicily
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  • A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
  •  
  • Kindred Spirits

The Course of Empire: Destruction

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1836, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.4.

About the Series:

The Course of Empire

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Decode

Mouse over the detail to view its caption, click it to zoom in, and use the reset button on the lower right to zoom back out.

1. The mountain becomes more visible again, asserting the return of nature.

2. Nature echoes the chaos of the empire's destruction in the form of storm clouds, wind, and fire.

3. The porch of the Doric temple becomes the base for a catapult, indicating that the violence of civilization has corrupted art and religion.

4. The bridge that once supported the decadent ruler collapses under the weight of the armies.

5. The ships that once promoted trade and exploration now burn and sink in the throes of war.

6. The sculpture of an armed warrior is modeled after another work in the Louvre: the Borghese Gladiator.

7. A mother mourns the loss of her son. Theodore Géricault's painting Raft of the Medusa (1819) may have inspired this detail.

8. A woman fleeing from a soldier throws herself into the harbor, indicating the collapse of civilization into sexual violence.

9. The painter's signature on the pedestal suggests Cole's alliance with the arts.

thomas cole

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