<P> According to critic Jonathan Miles, the raft carried the survivors "to the frontiers of human experience . Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and killed the weakest ." After 13 days, on 17 July 1816, the raft was rescued by the Argus by chance--no particular search effort was made by the French for the raft . By this time only 15 men were still alive; the others had been killed or thrown overboard by their comrades, died of starvation, or thrown themselves into the sea in despair . The incident became a huge public embarrassment for the French monarchy, only recently restored to power after Napoleon's defeat in 1815 . </P> <P> The Raft of the Medusa portrays the moment when, after 13 days adrift on the raft, the remaining 15 survivors view a ship approaching from a distance . According to an early British reviewer, the work is set at a moment when "the ruin of the raft may be said to be complete". The painting is on a monumental scale of 491 × 716 cm (193.3 × 282.3 in), so that most of the figures rendered are life - sized and those in the foreground almost twice life - size, pushed close to the picture plane and crowding onto the viewer, who is drawn into the physical action as a participant . </P> <P> The makeshift raft is shown as barely seaworthy as it rides the deep waves, while the men are rendered as broken and in utter despair . One old man holds the corpse of his son at his knees; another tears his hair out in frustration and defeat . A number of bodies litter the foreground, waiting to be swept away by the surrounding waves . The men in the middle have just viewed a rescue ship; one points it out to another, and an African crew member, Jean Charles, stands on an empty barrel and frantically waves his handkerchief to draw the ship's attention . </P> <P> The pictorial composition of the painting is constructed upon two pyramidal structures . The perimeter of the large mast on the left of the canvas forms the first . The horizontal grouping of dead and dying figures in the foreground forms the base from which the survivors emerge, surging upward towards the emotional peak, where the central figure waves desperately at a rescue ship . </P>

The artist creates emotion in the raft of the medusa through which of the following