A Roman Slave Market on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Slave Market in Ancient Rome'' is a painting of about 1884 by French artist
The scheme and figures in this composition are more or less the reverse of his previous work, '' A Roman Slave Market'', also completed in 1884.
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ran ...
, who was known for combining classical, romantic, and realistic elements.
Description
It depicts anAncient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
slave auction
A slave market is a place where slaves are bought and sold. These markets became a key phenomenon in the history of slavery.
Slave markets in the Ottoman Empire
In the Ottoman Empire during the mid-14th century, slaves were traded in special ...
in progress. At the center of a high dais is a completely nude woman having been recently undressed by the slave dealer situated to her right, who is displaying her to the crowd as they bid on her. The woman shields her eyes with her right hand due to the humiliating predicament of being publicly exposed in front of such a large crowd. Another nude young woman sits fearfully at the first woman's feet, covering her breasts
The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues.
In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...
with her legs in a protective pose, however, this leaves her genitals exposed to the crowd. Behind her is an older clothed woman holding an infant, she is surrounded by two naked children
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
who she is probably the mother of. Her face has a look of dread as she knows she is to be auctioned soon, most likely being separated from her children forever. Behind the auction booth, two men are keeping an account of the sales, with a row of enslaved men looking on from behind them. It is one of his six slave-market scenes set in either ancient Rome or 19th-century Istanbul that Gérôme painted during his career.
In Relation to ''A Roman Slave Market''
The scheme and figures in this composition are more or less the reverse of his previous work, '' A Roman Slave Market'', also completed in 1884.
See also
*Slavery in Ancient Rome
Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy. Besides manual labour, slaves performed many domestic services and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Accountants and physicians were often slaves ...
*The Slave Market (Gérôme painting)
''The Slave Market'' () is an 1866 painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. It depicts an unspecific Middle Eastern or North African setting where a man inspects the teeth of a nude, female slave.
The painting was bought by Adolphe Goup ...
References
Paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme 1884 paintings Slavery in art Erotic art Oil on canvas paintings {{19C-painting-stub