Clémence de Minos. Heureux le pâle humain, qui, dans ce noir refuge Arrive quand Minos lit son Charivari; Il est sûr d'être absous, car on sait que tout juge, Est désarmé quand il a ri. (Petite réclame poétique.)

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1843

King Minos is reading Le Charivari before judging an old man. A quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations. It was his method to put history into perspective.