Beautiful Slave Women

Sex sells! This platitude proves true especially in art history. Already a lot of Renaissance painters improved there incomes by painting gorgeous nudes or adding them to other sceneries.

In 19th century academic painting voluptuous nudes were so endemic that it was necessary to find good excuses for their omnipresence. So they were situated in mythological, biblical and not at least historical sceneries.

One of the most popular practices to place nudes in history paintings was slavery. Paining nudes on an antique slave market was not only a good excuse but also kind of politically correct. Superficially accusing the suppression and exploitation of the poor females the artists could paint gorgeous nudes and exploit them themselves by selling them in the art market.

The White Slave (1894) by the British painter Ernest Normand (1859-1923). Normand was kind of a specialist in mythological and historical nudes.

Roman Slave (1894) by the Brazilian painter Oscar Pereira da Silva (1867-1939). On the sign is written "VIRGO XXI ANNUS NATA" meaning "Virgin, 21 years old". That feigns authenticity, but it’s a poor invention. Beautiful slaves were never sold nude on the streets.

Slave Market in Rome (c. 1884) by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904). Gérôme did also a lot of paintings of this subject but preferably with an oriental setting which offered even more salacious opportunities.

In the long run nearly all these paintings are cheap exploitation already long before the word was used in that context. I know only one painting which offers another point of view on that subject: A Slave for Sale (c. 1897) by the Spanish painter Aranda, José Jiménez (1837-1903).

There is a young slave girl bowing her head in shame, clearly a victim. She’s not voluptuous like the slaves by Normand or Gérôme, she’s pregnant probably violated. Around here are the feet of lecherous men the possible buyers and above all the voyeurs. This circle can be completed with the contemplators of the painting.
Really a great piece of art!

The Lovers of Teruel

The Lovers of Teruel (1884) by the Spanish painter Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1840-1924). Muñoz Degrain depicted here an old Spanish legend. He did with all the drama and perfection of the heyday of history painting, which won him a medal in the national exposition.

Cleopatra's Banquet

Cleopatra's Banquet (c.1675) by the Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard de Lairesse (1640-1711). Cleopatra is here dissolving her earring in vinegar and will drink it to prove to the Roman Mark Antony that she can spent ten million sestertia for one supper.

Despite the architecture is pure fantasy it shows that Lairesse already tried to provide his painting with a historical setting.

Tragical End of a Hero

Miranda in prison (1896) by the Venezuelan painter Arturo Michelena (1863-1898). Miranda, who was a student of the famous French history painter Jean-Paul Laurens, depicts here one of the founders of Latin American Liberty.

Sebastián Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan revolutionary and is considered as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar. After is revolution had failed he died in a Spanish prison.

Victorian Kitsch

A Sick Child Brought into the Temple of Aesculapius (1877) by the British painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917).

Waterhouse specialized in sugary scenes likes this. Sometimes he choose medieval sceneries, on other occasions classical Greek or Roman ones. But he always provided what the Victorian clients expected.

A Heroic Episode

The Combat of the Thirty by the French (1857) painter Octave Penguilly L'Haridon (1811-1870)

Penguilly L'Haridon shows here an episode of the Hundred Years War which happened on 26 March 1351 in Brittany. Thirty English knights (many of them were foreign mercenaries) fought there in a kind of formal joust against 30 knights from the French-Breton side.

It’s a quite well done painting with a lot of good historical details. Like many history paintings in the 19th century it’s glorifying regional history and was therefore achieved by the musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper.

Religious Fanatic

The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 (1889) by the Spanish painter Emilio Sala y Francés (1850-1910)

Several months after the fall of Granada an Edict of Expulsion was issued against the Jews of Spain by the so called Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. It ordered all Jews of whatever age to leave the kingdom by the last day of July. The Jews offered then an immense ransom of 600,000 crowns for the revocation of the edict. When the monarchs were ready to accept, Torquemada, the grand inquisitor, dashed into the royal presence and, throwing a crucifix down before the king and queen, asked whether, like Judas, they would betray their Lord for money.
The Jews were expulsed from Spain with fatal consequences for the whole country.

Sala y Francés is depicting here the moment when the fanatic Torquemada is accusing the Jews. It’s one of the highlights of Spanish history painting illustrating one of the darkest moments of her history.

Sugary Past

The First Thanksgiving (c1912) by the American painter Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930).

Ferris shows here a scenery very popular in American culture and iconography. In autumn of 1621 the surviving Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest and invited the Indians who helped them before with food.

The scene is heavily romanticized. The Indians there didn’t wore feathers in their hair, but they look more "Indian" with that. And as savages that are sitting on the floor, which they wouldn’t have done. So it’s despite all the nice colorful details nothing authentic.

An Early Scientist

The Alchemist Sedziwoj and King Sigismund III (1867) by the Polish painter Jan Matejko (1838-1893).

Matejko depicted here the famous alchemist not as a charlatan but as a kind of early engineer and scientist, which he was. Because Sedziwoj constructed mines and foundries and did a lot of chemical experimentation.

Semiramis

Semiramis constructing Babylon (1861) by the French painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917).

This may be a little surprising because the impressionist artist despised history painting as a typical form of academic art. And Degas ist considered as one of the founders of impressionism.
But at the beginning of his career he wanted to be a history painter like the best artists of this time.

A pensative Hero

El Gran Capitán visits the battlefield of Ceriñola (1835) by the Spanish history painter Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (1815–1894).

Madrazo shows here the famous Spanish military leader after his great victory of Ceriñola in 1503. He is looking at the dead body of Louis d'Armagnac the leader of the French forces. So it’s also a reflection about luck, death and destiny.
Formally the painting is orientated at Velazquez.

Little Luther

Luther singing as a boy before lady Cotty in eisenach in 1499 (1872) by the Belgian history painter Ferdinand Pauwels (1830-1904).

The later Reformer is here aleready a devoted Christian and probably singing like an angel. It’s idyllic and kind of protestant religious kitsch.
Pauwels did a series of his popular Luther paintings.