The imaginary east in European painting: Slave markets

Orientalist works on the theme of harem, bathhouse and slave market, where Western artists eroticized the female body and exhibited freely, have always attracted researchers who are interested in orientalism. When the literature is carefully examined, it is understood that despite the abundance of researches on orientalist works of art with the theme of harem and bath, orientalist works of art on the captive market are not specifically addressed within the discipline of art history. This research aims to contribute to the gap in the literature by turning its focus to orientalist artworks on the slave market. In the research conducted on fifty-seven prototype works of art by Western artists in the Eastern collections of famous museums and auction houses of the West, the focus is on sexual, racial, spatial and objective distinctions in orientalist artworks on the slave market. During the research, the metonymic relationship established by Western orientalist artists between fantasy and reality was traced.