Slave Market in Ancient Rome

Slave Market in Ancient Rome is a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. He painted it around 1884. Gerôme often combined classical, romantic, and realistic elements.^[1]

Slave Market in Ancient Rome
Artist	Jean-Léon Gérôme
Year	circa 1884
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	92 cm × 74 cm (36 in × 29 in)
Location	The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Description

The painting shows an Ancient Roman slave auction in progress. At the center of a raised platform is a completely nude woman. The slave dealer on her right completely undressed the woman. He did this to display her to the crowd, who would then be able to bid on her. The woman feels humiliated, by being publicly exposed, completely naked, in front of such a large crowd.^[2] For this reason she shields her eyes. Another young woman, possibly the next to be sold, is sitting at the feet of the first woman. She is also completely naked. Fearfully, she tries to cover her breasts with her legs. This still leaves her genitals exposed to the crowd. Behind her is an older clothed woman holding an infant, she is surrounded by two naked children 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

Jean Leon Gerome's 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.^[3]

See also

• The Slave Market (Gérôme painting)

References

1. "Slave Market in Ancient Rome". hermitagemuseum.org. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
2. Palmer, Allison Lee (2019-07-26). Historical Dictionary of Romantic Art and Architecture. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-2296-9. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
3. Ackerman, Gerald M. (1986). The Life and Work of Jean-Leon Gerome, with a catalogue raisonne. Sotheby's. ISBN 978-0856673115.