Young Girl Dressed As An Odalisque Attributed To Pietro Morgari

Oil painting on canvas depicting a young western girl dressed as an Odalisque in oriental clothing engrossed at the window inside a Harem. Italian school of the second half of the 19th century. Measures 131x97.5 cm. Attributed to Pietro Morgari with the expertise of Professor Arabella Cifani. Princesses as well as odalisques and slaves from all parts of the vast Turkish empire (Greek, Georgian, Circassian) passed their time between lunches, pipes, coffee, tea and long conversations. It was not until evening that they went down to the garden, preceded by the eunuchs who made the visitors step back. Sometimes some drama darkened the monotony of daily life: it happened that the master fell in love with a slave who gave him a child and that the mistress, seized with violent jealousy, brought the poor girl together in a cell. However, it is wrong to assume that Turkish women were unhappy, because apart from the supreme happiness of raising offspring and becoming loving mothers, there was no shortage of pastimes such as dancing, singing, bathing, walking, dressing and even idleness. considered one of the pleasures of life.