Eugene Delacroix's main entry to the Salon exhibition of 1824 was entitled Scenes from the Massacres at Chios: Greek Families Awaiting Death or Slavery, etc. (1) This work depicts the aftermath of an episode involving protracted bloodshed from the Greek War of Independence (1821-27). (2) As has been well noted, critics at the time found the painting notoriously difficult to assess (Fig. 1). They saw imposing figures dominating the foreground, but the title gave them no help in identifying which of these figures should be considered the most important. They noted a fragmentation and obscuring of bodies, a thickening and thinning of paint across the surface of the canvas, and a sudden snaring of the attention by precise details, precise expressions. A figure of a bearded Greek male lies near the center of the composition (Fig. 2). He assumes a classic recumbent pose and is almost entirely nude. Stretched out among other figures also depicted as slumped or seated on sandy ground, he can hardly be described as completely different from his companions, who also seem exhausted and wounded. Yet time and again, contemporary viewers, whether or not they liked or disliked the Chios, professed themselves drawn to this one figure in particular.