19th Century Tamar of Judah Orientalist Painting Oil on canvas

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19th Century Tamar of Judah Orientalist Painting Oil on canvas

About the Item

Nineteenth century Tamar of Judah Oil on canvas, 114x91 cm Signed lower left. The biblical story told in this canvas is that of Tamar of Judah, told in chapter 38 of Genesis. According to the Bible, Judah had three sons: Er, Onan and Sela. Er became Tamar's husband but died soon. Tamar, after Er's death, according to the obligation of the Hebrew law of levirate, married her husband's brother, Onan, but, again according to the law, the first child to be born from the new union would not be considered of Onan but of the brother Er. Onan, not intending to give posterity to his brother, resorted to the contraceptive method of coitus interruptus. Since birth control practices were considered sinful, God punished him with death. Still following the laws, Judas should have given Tamar her third son, Sela, as a husband, but at the time he was too young: the woman was then sent back by her parents with the promise that when Sela grew up she would marry her. But Judas, fearing that the cause of Er and Onan's death was Tamar and not wanting Sela to perish too, pretended to forget his daughter-in-law. Tamar then devised a stratagem: she disguised herself as a prostitute and without being recognized (she had veiled her face) she seduced Judas himself. To join her, Judah promised Tamar a kid from her flock and left her his seal, cord, and staff as a pledge. When Judas was informed that his daughter-in-law had prostituted herself and became pregnant, he sentenced her to the stake: but the woman sent her father-in-law the objects he had left her and sent him to say that the man with whom she had prostituted herself was the owner of those things. Judas recognized her seal and the other objects and recognized her sin of not having married her third son to Tamar Sela. The painter focuses on the charm of the female figure, portrayed within a desert landscape as a prostitute with a covered face and a winking attitude; next to her a man, to be identified as Judas, who in her hands holds a twisted stick, the cord-ribbon and the ring with the seal, references to the biblical story that allow us to identify her figure. The painting, to be dated to the nineteenth century, is to be connected to the artistic current of Orientalism. This current, which began in France and England in the last years of the eighteenth century, finds its maximum diffusion in the nineteenth century. As the name implies, there was a tendency to paint environments and atmospheres belonging to the Eastern world, especially those of North Africa (such as Egypt) and some Middle Eastern colonies. Painters who dedicated themselves to Orientalism had hardly ever visited those countries, even if they painted figures, environments and scenes of life from the Arab or Middle Eastern world. The images were full of charm and exotic mystery, as well as a certain sensuality, given that the tendency was of a romantic type and driven to depict the exotic world as an environment free from Western bourgeois conventions.

Dimensions:
Height: 47.25 in (120 cm)Width: 38.19 in (97 cm)Depth: 1.58 in (4 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Canvas,Hand-Painted,Oiled,Painted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
19th Century
Condition:
Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use. The painting has been cleaned.
Seller Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5918229119052