Art as Protest: Irish Painters Use Catholicism to Protest Against the British Government

My students and I went on an excursion to the National Gallery of Ireland to view Irish artists' paintings and scupltures. To illustrate how visual artists make political protests while living under an oppressive government, several students and I viewed and discussed the painting Opening of the Sixth Seal(1828) by Francis Danby, an Irish painter. The sixth seal is a reference to Revelations 6:12 in the Bible. The painting's motif is antislavery; the abolishment of slavery was a major topic in Ireland and England in 1820s. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, but slavery continued in the British colonies until 1833.