3-002-566 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

A Roman Slave Market, c1884. Gérôme depicts a woman being auctioned at a slave market in ancient Rome, foregrounding the sensuality of her nude body in front of a crowd of leering men. The artist painted several scenes of men assessing nude females of different races, the most famous of which portrayed a white courtesan on trial in ancient Greece, Phryné before the Areopagus, which was exhibited in 1861. Gérôme’s focus on a white enslaved woman in A Roman Slave Market may have been influenced by the influx of Circassian women who were sold into slavery in the 1860s following the Russian defeat of the Circassians during the Caucasian War. Gérôme’s depictions of female nudes displayed in slave markets circulated widely in the 19th century as prints and photographs, providing contemporary viewers with imagery for titillation despite—or perhaps undeterred by—the brutal subject matter.