A
centuries-old theme in Western culture is the depiction of European women forcibly taken into Oriental harems – evident for example in the Mozart opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”) concerning the attempt of the hero Belmonte to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio/harem of the Pasha Selim; or in Voltaire’s Candide, in chapter 12 of which the old woman relates her experiences of being sold into harems across the Ottoman Empire.
Much of Verdi’s opera Il corsaro takes place in the harem of the Pasha Seid - where Gulnara, the Pasha’s favourite, chafes at life in the harem, and longs for freedom and true love. Eventually she falls in love with the dashing invading corsair Corrado, kills the Pasha and escapes with the corsair - only to discover that he loves another woman. And it did not stop there. Hollywood builded on this romanticized idea in many, many movies. The Harem was a male fantasy: a bunch of (always) very beautiful women, laying around in seductive poses, barely clothed at their disposal. Willingly. And there was always a dancer. The dancer seemed also very willingly to be dancing for the sultan (does not every man wishes to be a sultan? ;-) and simultaneously stripping their clothes of, one by one.. the dance of the seven veils, thus indicating being ready for sex...
Marlene Dietrich in Kissmet
More Jean-Léon Gérôme paintings here: http://dm-fa.org/academic/gerome2.html#3 Dianne Hofmeyr on the Tokapi Harem (Blog): http://the-history-girls.blogspot. nl/2012/11/the-harem-dianne-hofmeyr. html information: Wikipedia
114 ISPAHAN
Jean-Léon Gérôme