The slave market
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| The slave market |
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| Gustave Boulanger , before 1882 |
| Oil on canvas |
| Privately owned |
The slave market (around 1882), also known as the Roman slave market , is a painting by Gustave Boulanger (1824–1882).
The picture shows a slave auction in ancient Rome . You can see seven people, from children to young adults, who are offered for sale on a ramp as slaves. "The slaves exhibited for sale wore tablets around their necks on which their name, their age and their good and bad qualities had to be listed." In anticipation of the customers and their offers, the seller, who has taken a seat at the edge of the ramp, consumes his lunch.
The painting shows the characteristics of 19th century salon painting , which was committed to the formal and technical requirements of French academism . The theme follows the tastes of the Parisian audience of the late 19th century, who appreciated erotic themes disguised in a historicizing representation.
The work is privately owned; its provenance is unknown.
literature
- Paul Vogt: What they loved. Salon painting in the 19th century . DuMont Schauberg 1969
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Joseph Görlich, Herrenrecht und Sklavenpeitsche: A history of slavery and serfdom from the oldest times to the present , Fackel-Verlag, 1971