#turbans

A naked woman at center and man at far right are shown in a public courtyard, as prospective slave owners inspect their bodies. Meticulous details like the figures’ clothing, as well as the style of the surrounding architecture, evoke locales such as Egypt and Turkey, where Gérôme spent several months traveling and sketching. Constructed both from imagination and observation, this dehumanizing scene portrays Islamic society as strange, violent, and depraved. Such paintings appealed to France’s assumptions of its own moral superiority as it expanded its colonial empire across North Africa.

"Iris as Ambassador in the Realm of Hypnos" refers to a specific moment in Ovid's Metamorphoses where Hera sends Iris to Hypnos (the god of sleep) to instruct him to send a dream to Alcyone, informing her of her husband Ceyx's death, with Iris quickly leaving as she's affected by Hypnos's power.

Medium: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, United States

The Battle of Zama was fought in 202 BC in what is now Tunisia between a Roman army commanded by Scipio Africanus and a Carthaginian army commanded by Hannibal. The battle was part of the Second Punic War and resulted in such a severe defeat for the Carthaginians that they capitulated, while Hannibal was forced into exile. The Roman army of approximately 30,000 men was outnumbered by the Carthaginians who fielded either 40,000 or 50,000; the Romans were stronger in cavalry, but the Carthaginians had 80 war elephants.

Mal Weber Milland (with Ray and Daniel) in Photoplay, October 1946

Turbans in the 1920s

Princes in Kaftans