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The Politics of Possession: Edwin Long's Babylonian Marriage Market
Author(s) -
Hart Imogen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
art history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8365
pISSN - 0141-6790
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00872.x
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , politics , history , art history , law , political science , philosophy , linguistics
The article discusses the ways in which the Victorian-era painting "The Babylonian Marriage Market" by artist Edwin Longsden Long critiques ancient Greek historian Herodotus' writing on Babylon's wife auctions. The author also notes how the painting differs from a description of the auction provided in historian George C. Swayne's book "Herodotus." The ways in which the act of marriage is depicted as a form of female slavery in the painting are explored, as well as its similarities to paintings of Asian female slave markets by French artist Jean-Leon Gerome.