WAR & PEACE – EPISODE 2
‘Orientalism’ became a popular trend in 19th century European art, fuelled by Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, colonialist expansion in N. Africa and resistance against Ottoman rule on the Balkans. Brilliant colours, military exploits, slavery, dramatic nature and sensual harem scenes created powerfully exotic themes for painters and public.
Czech-born painter Jaroslav Ċermák personally participated in fights on the Balkans and eye-witnessed bashi-bazouks, irregular but fearsome Turkish troops, raiding Christian villages. The ‘Abduction of a Herzegovinian woman’, his debut on the 1861 Paris Salon, explicitly shows the turmoil in the region. In an unsettling, extremely evocative image a naked woman is captured by the murderers of her husband and child, their bodies lying on either side of her. A third intruder sets her house on fire, while the crucifix on the floor leaves no doubt about her religion.
Nudes were only acceptable to the Salon jury disguised as mythological goddesses, or connected with exotic cultures. The voluptuous body of a struggling European woman in a grim parody on a harem dance therefore must have raised eyebrows. Still, critics praised the painting as one of the best exhibited, especially its combination of a modern subject with a nude study. Another commended its ‘powerful and brilliant rudeness’, while explaining that the woman was not raped to preserve her value on the slave market. And in 1879 an American critic dubbed it a ‘model of the defence of Western civilization against Islamic danger’, describing the woman as a ‘living allegory of Christianity, waylaid but not conquered’.
Ċermák’s subject remains modern and controversial. Victims and perpetrators are in Oslo, Toulouse and elsewhere. Mutual atrocities in religious and ethnic wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina are fresh in mind and Middle East violence continues today. An Islamic website features the painting criticizing ‘post-colonial Euro-master’ attitudes. Let the viewer decide which aspect appeals most: artistic, historical, political or just plain erotic.
(text: Jos Hanou)
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