Greek slave

The liberation war of Greece (1821-1829) was accompanied by the devastation by the Turks of many Greek islands and cities (the Samothrace Holocaust , the Chios massacre , the Kasos massacre , the Psarsk massacre , etc.), the extermination and enslavement of their population.

On the Greek island of Psara , it is claimed that the theme of the sculpture “Greek Slave Girl” was caused by the actual story that took place after the destruction of the island by the Turks in June 1824.

Among the enslaved inhabitants was the seven-year-old Garifallia Michalvei ( Greek: Γαριφαλιά Μιχάλβεη ). Sold at a slave market in Constantinople , the girl found a convenient moment and rushed with a plea for salvation at the feet of a strolling American diplomat. The diplomat was impressed by the beauty of the girl, bought her and sent her to her family in the United States, where she received the Americanized name Garafilia Mohalbi. But the girl never reconciled with the death of her parents and family, and by the age of 13 she died of melancholy ^[1] .

The American artist Anne Hall (1792–1863), who painted the painting The Greek Girl, was the first to address this topic.

After 14 years, the American sculptor Hiram Powers, who lived in Italian Florence, addressed this topic. The Venus Medicitsa from the Uffizi Gallery became a model for the Powers statue ^[2] .

The first statue was made of clay ^[3] . The original marble sculpture was completed in 1844 and today is located in Raby Castle, England ^[4] . Copies of the statue were presented in the UK and USA. The statue quickly became one of Powers' most famous and popular works. The statue depicts a young woman, naked, chained and holding a small cross in one hand. The name suggests that she is a captive, and put up for sale in the market.

Power himself described the topic this way:

A slave was captured by the Turks on one of the Greek islands during the Greek Revolution, and its history is familiar to everyone . Her father and her mother, and possibly all of her relatives, were killed, and only she alone was saved as a life of great value. She is now among the barbarians of strangers, under the absolute oppression of memories of these disastrous events that reduced her to her current state; and she is exposed to the contemplation of people whom she does not tolerate, and awaits her fate with anxiety, finding strength and placing her hopes in God's grace. Gather all these sufferings together, and add the Christian stamina to them, and there will be no room for shame ^[5] .

When the statue began to be exhibited in different cities in 1848, Miner Kellogg (1814–1889), a friend of the artist and exhibition organizer, published a brochure for visitors to the artist’s exhibition. He presented his description of the sculpture:

The theme of the Greek girl captured by the Turks and exhibited in Constantinople is presented for sale. The cross and the castle, visible against the backdrop of drapery, show that she is a Christian. But this in no way completes the meaning of the statue. It represents superiority to suffering, ascension over decline, through inner purity and strength of character. Thus, the Greek slave is a symbol of the court to which all mankind is subject, and can be regarded as a kind of uncompromising virtue, or exalted patience ^[5] .

The public reaction to the statue was mixed. When the work was exhibited for the first time, many were shocked by the nudity of the figure. Powers opposed this criticism, stating that this young woman was an excellent example of Christian purity and chastity, because even in her naked state she tried to protect herself from the eyes of others. In addition, the sculptor said, her nudity was not her fault, but was caused by her Turkish captors, who took off her clothes to put up for sale. Therefore, this reasoning makes it reasonable to exhort many Christian clergy to their parishioners to see the statue at the exhibition ^[2] .

Some of the viewers drew a parallel between the Greek slave and the slaves, who at that time worked on plantations in the southern United States . Such a parallel initially provoked a negative reaction from the American audience, but with the approach of the Civil War , the abolitionists made this statue a symbol, and compared it with the "Slave of Virginia" ^[6] . Comparison became the theme of John Whittier's poem .

The statue also inspired Elizabeth Browning to write a sonnet . The abolitionist Maria White Lowell (1821-1853) wrote that the Greek slave “was a vision of beauty that anyone should look back on, considering it a milestone of the era” ^[7] . In 1848, while walking in the Boston Common park, the American abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone (1818–1893) stopped to admire the statue and burst into tears, seeing the symbol of female oppression in chains. Since that day, Stone has included Women's Rights in her speeches. ^[8]

Powers created six copies of the Greek slave . Each was made for sale to various art collectors. The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds one of the copies, as well as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington . Purchased by the founder of the gallery William Wilson Corcoran in 1851, the first copy was made of full-size marble, like the original ^[4] . When a copy of the statue was placed on the desk of the Governor of Vermont, Governor James Douglas ordered it to be removed as obscene, stating that schoolchildren could see it ^{[9] [10]} . Other copies are kept at the Vermont State Capitol , at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts , and the Westervelt Warner Museum of American Art in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. ^[11]

• Lessing, Lauren. Ties that Bind: Hiram Powers' Greek Slave and Nineteenth-century Marriage (Eng.) // American Art: journal. - Vol. 24 . - P. 41-65 . - DOI : 10.1086 / 652743 .