The hyena - after Géricault Painting

In Portraits of alienated Géricault conducts, through painting, a scientific investigation into madness. Through painting he studies the individual and his depth through a rigorous and almost merciless vision of reality that recalls Leonardo's studies on physiognomy and the "motions of the soul". The understanding of the inner world, mysterious and irrational, is accompanied by the theme of human unhappiness and suffering, and of the social condition. It is a complaint against the marginalization of the mentally ill, against which scientists such as Georget and Esquirol, who were the first to consider these patients as human beings in need of care. The strong realism makes these portraits particularly expressive and disturbing. The "alienated" are seen as mysterious characters, who intrigue, strike for their faces and intense expressions, so characteristic and very particular, but at the same time, deeply human.