The real enemy

How could the Turks appreciate the reaction in western Europe to their destruction of the first contingent of philhellenes at the battle of Peta in Epirus (1822), or to the massacre of Chios, immortalised by Delacroix? The names os Byron and Shelley, Goethe, Schiller and Victor Hugo meant nothing to the Sultan, but these were his real enemies. He was left to depend on Metternich and Castlereagh - an unequal match, as history was to show.
C.M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece: A Short History, chapter 5

Delacroix: Scenes from the Massacre at Chios

It is difficult to know where to begin with the contrasts with current times. The idea of a modern figure from 'high' literature or art commanding or even reflecting public opinion in political matters, let alone influencing the fate of nations (or would be nations) can scarcely be contemplated. Where is the modern Goethe or Byron or Delacroix? The idea of such a figure existing at all in our present culture seems remote. It is now almost three-quarters of a century since Picasso painted his picture in response to the bombing of Guernica. 

Maybe I've missed something, but now it seems to be campaigning (and possibly fund raising) by such as Bob Geldof or Bono. Yet their efforts seem more executive or political than imaginative. A few decade after Delacroix's Chios the novels of Charles Dickens anatomised the social, political and economic ills of his day, interweaving them with his imaginative and emotional energy. No-one now writing or painting or whatever seems able to perform the same much needed service for our own times.

(The Sultan might be held to have got his own back - eventually. A copy of the Delacroix was hung in the Byzantine museum in Chios in 2002 but was removed late in that year as gesture of raprochement towards the Turks. The Greek press protested. Guernica's location of course followed a different course.)