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Three Young White Men and a Black Woman - by Christiaen van Couwenbergh (1632)
(upload.wikimedia.org)
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Traditional Art
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Considering the time period, the women ethnicity, and what history tells us about what happened to female slaves, it is what it seems to depict : the rape of a black woman.
Also note that the bed sheets become death's robe below her and a boney hand is visible. The artist probably meant it to be macabre.
It's hard to imagine someone painting this/that expression on her face and finding the subject matter acceptable. Or so I like to think? Maybe I'm naive. But if it's true, it's a great example of powerful art confronting viewers. Or I suppose that's true either way, for better or worse.