Erotic helplessness : a study of the history of the Damsel in Distress theme in art

[coldturkey]

Illustrations from "The Captives of the Unnamed Island", by Gaston Smit.

 

[Naraku]

Agracier recently posted the following scans on Vintage Erotica Forum. Thought I would share them here. The 1905 work is an erotic retelling of the life of King David. The illustrations are by Charles Atamian...

1) The Amalekite women left on the battlefield at the mercy of the Israelites
2) The same Amalekite women taken into a harem
3) A biblical slave market
4) Captives (a bit too consenting to my taste) presented to a despondent King David
5) Women fleeing the palace in shame (I would presume these are David's concubines that his son Absalom violated publicly in his rebellion)

It seems that a couple of the women in #4 have not only accepted their fates but are going to make the best of it. After all, better to be the slave - maybe, concubine - of a king than of some grubby soldier. The one standing in the center seems very eager: "Oh, Kingy! Pick me! I know how to make a tabernacle rise!"

 

[ducon007]

An illustration by Adrien Moreau of Voltaire's Candide:
"Jeunes Filles Poursuivies par des Singes"
(Young Girls Pursued by Monkeys).

 

[coldturkey]

Italian art from different works about the Spanish Inquisition, found yesterday evening on Ebay...

 

[ducon007]

Italian art from different works about the Spanish Inquisition, found yesterday evening on Ebay...

Good pick !

 

[coldturkey]

This evening I came across a series of very graphic drawings (crucifixion, breast mutilation, violence against infants, etc.), depicting atrocities committed against the local Muslim population by the Greek and Bulgarian armies during the 1912-13 Balkan War... The flip side of Gottfried Sieben's Balkangreuel, so to speak... Here is one of the more "softcore" ones...

 

[coldturkey]

Found this afternoon : the massacre of Machecoul, an atrocity commited during the Vendée War...

 

[coldturkey]

Adolphe Thiers attempting to rape Marianne (in the aftermath of the repression of the Paris Commune).

 

[ducon007]

"Semiramis mourant sur la tombe de Nino"
(Semiramis dying on Nino's grave)
By Augusto Valli.

 

[Naraku]

Scenes from the antebellum era:

 

[ducon007]

Scenes from the antebellum era:
View attachment 1357036View attachment 1357037View attachment 1357038

On the same subject.
Illustrator is John Gabriel Stedman.

 

[coldturkey]

A school inspector abusing a teacher, from "L'assiette au beurre"

 

[coldturkey]

Not exactly high art, but to continue on the theme of master abuses slave...

 

[ducon007]

"L'amour crucifiée"
(Crucified love)
By Félicien Rops.

 

[ducon007]

"Menelaus finding Helena"
By Alexander Rothaus.
I wonder how Menelaus' loincloth manages to stay in place...?

 

[coldturkey]

Aleksander Lesser, Captives

 

[coldturkey]

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine

 

[coldturkey]

Pursued by dogs, from Boccaccio's Decameron...

 

[ducon007]

"Precipice of Death"
By Paul Grabwinkler.

 

[ducon007]

"Mauvaise Surprise"
(Unpleasant Surprise)
By Henri Rousseau, better known as Douanier Rousseau, French painter, considered as a major figure in naive art.