Offered by Antichità di Alina
Romantic Portrait of a Woman in Oriental Dress among Greek Ruins, circa 1840
Oil on canvas, 61 × 46 cm (without frame), 74 × 57 cm (with frame)
First half of the 19th century
A young woman stands among ancient ruins, wearing an oriental-inspired gown with a gold-tasseled headdress, sheer sleeves, and pointed shoes. Her posture, both theatrical and meditative, reflects the Romantic fascination with exoticism and the memory of the classical world. The work belongs to the climate of Philhellenism, a cultural and political movement that, in 19th-century Europe, supported the Greek cause against the Ottoman Empire.
Medora — beautiful and melancholic, among natural ruins and memories carved in stone — evokes the theme of this composition, recalling the solitude and nostalgia of Byron’s heroines gazing toward the sea. Haidée, the young Greek from Don Juan, symbol of sweetness and ideal freedom, also seems to inhabit this vision of dreamy grace and poetic escape.
The presence of a wedding ring on the woman’s hand suggests that this may be a real portrait rather than a purely allegorical figure. One might plausibly consider Giuseppina Turrisi Colonna (Palermo, 1822–1848), an emblematic figure of Italian Romanticism. A poet and actress, she shared with her husband Giuseppe De Spuches — a Hellenist and ardent admirer of Byron — a deep passion for Greek culture and Romantic literature. The costume could thus allude to a theatrical or literary role inspired by Byron’s heroines, in harmony with the philhellenic taste of the time.
The iconography recalls the model established by Delacroix, where the oriental woman among ruins becomes an allegory of Greece itself. During the 1820s and 1830s, many artists adopted this visual language following the celebrated Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1826), painted as a tribute to Byron, who died in Missolonghi in 1824. In Paris, several “Exhibitions for the Benefit of the Greeks” presented both historical scenes from the Greek War of Independence and subjects drawn from Byron’s works, illustrating the close bond between Romanticism and the philhellenic ideal.
Relined canvas, in good condition.
