Violent, Exotic, Forbidden:
An Analysis of Orientalist Art and its Legacy
Table of Contents
The Origins of French Orientalism 3
Michal Kotelba
2. Life by the Sword: Men of the Maghrib 6
Denise Meadows
3. The Turkish Fetish: Sex and Violence in the Harem 10
Alik Simantov
4. The Legacy of Orientalism: American Protégés and Modernity 14 David Schmidt, II
1. The Origins of French Orientalism
Turning on the news today, one is often greeting with the sights and sounds of violence that has taken place somewhere in the Middle East. Given that the average Westerner bases their world view on the teachings of some form of Western media, it is inevitable that certain stereotypes about the Islamic world persist. Yet, looking back in history it is plain to see that there has been a strong and continued misrepresentation of the Islamic world in many forms of communication throughout the Western world. Today it comes in the form of a report about a suicide bombing blared over CNN. In the past it came as a painting or tale exalting the luridness of a Turkish bathhouse. Though our methods of communication may have changed, much of the message has remained the same. The Islamic world is still often depicted in the same manner as the West depicted it in the past, a place of violence and moral corruption. If we wish to understand why such ideas are being put forth today, the clearest course of action is to understand the events that have led to such perceptions in the Western mindset.
In the year 711, Moorish forces landed on the coast of Spain at the port of Gibraltar. Within eight years, the whole of the Iberian Peninsula was under their control. Violence continued as the Moors crossed the Pyrenees to invade France. The advance of the Islamic forces was finally stopped at the Battle of Tours by Christian forces under the command of Frank Charles Martel. Relative peace followed, though a clear subjugation of the dhimmis, non-Muslim peoples, under the rule of the Umayyad Empire occurred. Dhimmis were forced to pay a personal tax, the jizya, could not hold office, and had to practice their faith privately. Though there was a degree of co-existence and tolerance throughout this time, a backlash by the rest of the European world was inevitable. Muslim Spain fell through the efforts of Christians:
“The ‘Reconquista’, or re-conquest by the Christians of Muslim Spain, took nearly four centuries¼ All non-Catholics were eventually expelled from Spain, and the nearly seven and a half centuries of Muslim presence there were thus terminated¼ The ‘Reconquista’ thus brought to an end the first phase of Christian-Muslim interaction, the roughly three centuries of uneasy co-existence in Western Europe.”
The Christian retaliation for the Moorish invasion was one in a string of military re-conquests of lands taken by Muslim forces. Soon these offensives spilled out towards the Holy Land in what has come to be known as the Crusades.
Bolstered by the pleas of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, for the repulsion of Muslims along his borders and the recapture of Jerusalem, the first crusade began in 1095. Though the original motivation for the Crusades came from clear military goals rather than religious ones, Pope Urban II soon issued a Papal decree urging the re-conquest of all lands taken by Muslims and a push into the Holy Land:
“O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion! Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago.”
Given a backing by the Pope and a promise of Heaven for all those who participated in the fight, the first crusade soon accomplished its goal with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. However, this victory did not last as Muslim forces, under the command of the Kurdish born leader Saladin, re-captured Jerusalem on October 2, 1187. Though five crusades followed, none of them proved successful. Eventually, relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds stabilized, in part due to the military power of the Ottoman and other Islamic empires in the region. The Western view of the Islamic world also changed, as the Near East began to be viewed as a place of exotics:
“The West, ceasing for the moment to see the Islamic world as the abode of unimaginable evils and vices, put in its place the concept of the ‘exotic East’, the home of the rare and bizarre, of fabulous riches and voluptuous delights.”
Though the negativity in the West for the culture of the Islamic world seemed to have abated momentarily, such fascination in its exotic nature was not to last. Soon the old views would once again take a prominent role in the relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds.
As the West moved into the Industrial Revolution, Europeans once again saw their Islamic brethren as lower than themselves. A wave of imperialist thought set in as Westerners began to view it as their destiny to civilize those that did not behave, worship, or govern as they did. Of particular note were the actions of the French with their “mission civilisatrice” and their conquests under its banner. To accomplish their aims, the French, among other imperial powers, had to degrade the image of Islamic world once more:
“As the Western powers often justified their colonial expansion by the idea of a mission civilisatrice, it served their interests if Muslim society was depicted as backward and Islam as a religion of bloodthirsty, lecherous fanatics. Therefore, the unfavorable medieval image of Islam was revived.”
To expand their empire, namely through military conquest, the French, among others, demonized the Islamic world. Having motivated her armies by casting an image of evil upon her Muslim enemies, France quickly exploited this advantage. The 1800s and early 1900s saw the conquest of Algeria in 1830, Tunis in 1881, and Morocco in 1912. With these and other colonies under French control, the Muslim world became an ever close reality for the French people. As an important medium, French art of this period reflected the views of the masses about their new imperial conquest.
2. Life by the Sword:
The Men of the Maghrib
A large portion of Western art that illustrated Islamic life existed as paintings that were created by the Romantic painters of France. These paintings were painted during the 19th century and were all very similar in their nature. Each painting depicted the men of North Africa being extremely violent and unmerciful in their military actions. A leader in the field of Romantic artwork was Eugene Delacroix; but several other French painters depicted the men of North Africa in a similar way. These artists included Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, Leon Belly, and Eugene Fromentin. Together theses painters used their artistic skills to create a vivid image of life in North Africa. Their romantic style was “characterized by loose, fluid brushwork, strong colors, complex compositions, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and expressive poses and gestures.” These characteristics are clearly seen in the various paintings. Another characteristic of Romanticism is the idea that it “added the distinctive new dimension of social criticism.” This idea of social criticism helped to explain the French painters’ purpose of appreciating French life in contrast to the violence that existed in the exotic areas of the Near East. By viewing the different paintings at the National Art Gallery and on different internet archives, the violent depiction of Arab life in North Africa was evident.
The first artist examined was Eugene Delacroix. Eugene Delacroix traveled to North Africa in 1832 and was inspired by what he saw there. According to one Art historian, the trip “provided him with enough sketches of exotic subjects to feed his pictorial imagination for the rest of this life.” One of the pieces inspired by this trip was on display at the Nation Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. The painting Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains (1863) illustrated a battle between men on horseback and violent Arabs. The painting was painted from memory and was based on a journal entry Delacroix made in his journal forty years prior. The painting contained dark sharp colors with very strong red accents. The red accents suggested violence. The landscape in the painting is “craggy” with a fortified castle and mountains in the background. This landscape suggested chaos. The middle of the painting showed a battle between an Arab and a man on horseback. This scene was detailed while the fighting in the rest of the painting is not as clear. The painting also showed clear white and blue colors which not only caused the eye to focus on different parts of the painting; but they could represent the French patriotism and love of life. Overall, the painting clearly depicted the battle in the Mountains as an act of merciless violence and the way of life in the area. While Delacroix created an imaginary fight in this painting, he undoubtedly created an image in the eyes of his viewers; the image was a brutal landscape. This image was also evident in other works of Delacroix not featured at the museum.
The brutal landscape of North Africa was also illustrated in other works by Delacroix. These paintings have been collected on various website of museums and are all very similar to each other. First, the painting Arab Saddling his Horse (1855) portrayed the actions of an Arab as he mounts his horse in a very exotic and elaborate way. According to historians representing the Hermitage Museum, this work showed how “an everyday action [was] treated such as to crate a sense of disturbance, of something unnatural.” This idea was portrayed by showing the Arab making hurried movements and painting a dark cloudy sky that represented fear and violence. Another painting is Arab Riders on Scouting Mission (1862). Yet again, Delacroix used a rocky landscape and a dark sky. The painting showed a group of Arabs on horseback riding through the land with their swords raised. The leader of the pack, painted in the front of the painting and with the most detail, is pointing ahead with a look of determination on this face. This artwork definitely created an image of viciousness. The last painting looked at was Moroccans Conducting Military Exercises (1832). This painting showed Moroccans practicing a battle in a choreographed fashion. The paintings showed horses raised on their back legs and turban-wrapped Arabs charging with fierceness. When commenting on this work and his other works based on his travels to Africa, Delacroix stated, “From the start, they (Arabs in Africa) reared and fought with ferocity which made me tremble for those gentlemen but which was really admirable for painting.” This statement proved that Delacroix painted what he thought to be something that was very ferocious. His feelings were clearly expressed through his artwork and he undoubtedly created an image of violence and brutality of men in Africa.
While Delacroix was a leading painter in the 19th century, other Romantics focused on the violence of North Africa. First, Bonnat illustrated the relentlessness of Arab soldiers in Arabian Sheikhs in the Mountains (1872). This painting showed Arabs completely covered in turbans traveling by horse and foot. The Arabs are shown in the forefront of large mountains, which suggested that they had already traversed these obstacles. The Arabs also had mysterious, dark faces which showed that the artist found the soldiers to be relentless. Another artist that portrayed this violent imaged was Fromentin. In his painting Land of Thirst (1869), the artist showed people lying helplessly on the hills of the desert. The people represent the effects of an Arab raid and the people are wrapped in white drapery. The white represented innocence. Clearly, this artist tried to show the violence of North Africa. Lastly, a painting done by Belly showed the fierce determination of an Arab traveling across the desert. While the Arab in the painting, The Camel Rider (1867), is not a solider, he was painted to show the mysteriousness of Arab men. The man is painted in dark colors and his face is dark and undefined. He was traveling alone, and the artist decided to focus his entire painting on just this one Arab and how he was sitting on the camel on a sunny day in the desert. The painting showed relentlessness because the rider was riding through the hot desert wrapped in all of his clothing. Cleary, all three of these painters attempted to create an image of violence in North Africa.
The Romantic art movement in France allowed artists to use their artistic talent to illustrate their ideas about social issues. The artists during the time focused their attention on one aspect of life in North Africa. The artists used their previous encounters with the area and the encounters of others to create an image of violence and relentlessness. The Arab men of North Africa were portrayed and being determined soldiers who traversed different terrain throughout the area.
Besides depicting the men of the Near East, the French painters also focused their attention on the women of the Ottoman Empire. In the same manner that painters created a narrow view of violent men in North Africa, the painters of 19th century Europe create a narrow view of Turkish women. This narrow view entailed depicting women as extremely seductive and erotic. Paintings of this nature were also seen at the National Art Gallery and through other resources. The style used by the French romantics to express the brutality of North African men is definitely evident in the paintings of these women.