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Scheherazade &
Jean-Léon
Gérôme
I feel
there's something of a parallel between
many of my fantasies and the story of
Scheherazade. Briefly, it's the story of a
Sultan who upon discovering his wife was
unfaithful to him became convinced all
women were similarly incapable of fidelity
and, determined never to be deceived
again, vowed to take a virgin bride every
day and have her executed at dawn.
This
naturally caused great distress to the
people of the city as each day another
beautiful girl was sacrificed to the
Sultan's pride. That was until
Scheherazade was chosen as his new wife.
In an attempt to end the slaughter
Scheherazade asked, as a last request, to
tell a story to her sister and the Sultan
until her execution at dawn. Drawing on
her knowledge of poetry and Eastern
legends Scheherazade told a tale which
totally enthralled the Sultan but, as she
intended, did not finish before
dawn.
Faced with
the dilemma of having to put her to death
or hearing the end of the story, the
Sultan's curiosity won and he delayed her
execution until next day. This continued
for a thousand and one nights until the
Sultan, by now deeply in love with
Scheherazade and unable to face losing
her, renounced his vow and she remained
his wife for the rest of their
days.
Those who
know anything of the Tales of the Arabian
Nights will recognize the Sindbad Saga
quote about serendipity which appears in
my sig and forms the basis for a large
part of my fantasies.
Now, as
for the connection with Jean-Léon
Gérôme (1824 - 1904), a
French Academic Painter and Sculptor, and
the Middle Eastern Scheherazade tale.
It was
Napoleon in the July of 1798 who made the
first European steps into the region that
would so fascinate Gérôme and
the torrent of westerners who followed
Napoleon into the Near and Middle East.
The writers who wrote about their
experiences and the artists who painted
what they saw became known as the
Orientalists
.
They
traveled through Turkey, Iraq, Persia,
Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Arabia and
North Africa. With time this became an art
movement and today we call it Orientalist
art. Of all the artists who set foot into
the region it was Gérôme who
became Napoleon's favorite artist. He is
best known and adored by me for his
beautifully lush depictions of harem
slaves and slave auctions. The reasons why
this is should shouldn't be too much of a
mystery ;-)
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