The representation and interpretation of Eastern women was categorized as a subfield and part of the greater discourse as referred to in Edward Said’s “Orientalism”. Orientalism, as discussed by Edward Said, is “a style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident”” . By portraying the East as backward and uncivilized, it has an agenda of justifying European colonialism based on a constructed history from the West to the East as extremely different and inferior, and in need of Western intervention, saving and rule . Part of the Orientalism discourse sheds light on the portrayal and representation of women and the implications and connection this has on the feminist discourse throughout history. Women have been represented very binary in the East as either mystified Harem girls, or oppressed women . While belly dancers give the sense of the Arab culture being exotic and sexually available, the veil, on the other hand, has played a role in the mystification of Eastern women by captivating the West as well as being a symbol of oppression.
This misrepresentation and interpretation of Arab women caused the construction of a narrative purely based on stereotypes and misleading representations. While the term Orientalism has coined a dynamic and complex definition on its own, it has been used to describe, since the early nineteenth century, paintings and other forms of visual representation by Europe targeting the Middle East and North Africa . Antoine Ignace Melling was a European painter and architect that spent a significant period of his life in Constantinople understanding the East and portraying that within his artwork . One of his drawings in the 1800s depicted the imperial harem “Inside the Harem of the Sultan” which was a detailed drawing of what he interpreted the harem in the Ottoman palaces to be like . This artwork was also featured in the British Museum’s exhibition Inspired by the East as an example of artwork that featured European fascination with the harem.
Harems were one of the most popular orientalist genres which relied largely on male fantasy, imagination, and perpetuation of preexisting stereotypes. This was because the harem is a section of the house that is shared by females and their extended families. Therefore, since males were not allowed inside of it, they resorted to their imagination that is usually corrupted with orientalist thoughts and misrepresentations . What makes “Inside the Harem of the Sultan” different from a lot of the work done on imperial harems is the fact that Melling has spent a significant amount of time studying, observing and redesigning some of the Ottoman buildings and therefore, he had access to different palaces in Constantinople. Instead of portraying the harem as an exotic place that exists to satisfy the pleasure of men, he draws the harem with a large parameter and draws the women fully clothed and upon first glance, engaging in everyday activities as compared to typical harem paintings with seductive young women lounging around the sultan. Further, upon deeper examination, we can identify women with poses that resemble praying, performing domestic work and lounging around. But it also does not fail to include the typical image of women revolving around the sultan .
Furthermore, while the drawing seems to be less problematic and more realistic than multiple other harem representations, this is not the case. At the time this drawing was made, travel was an expense not everyone could afford which creates a great pressure and emphasis on the role of the camera and even before that era, the role of paintings and visual representations in mediating between the Western people that couldn’t travel and the different parts of the world with different cultures. Therefore, Westerners at the beginning of colonial time had limited access to examining other cultures and couldn’t understand the Eastern culture because it was different from their own.
The architecture shown in the drawing plays into the representation of the oppressed yet sexualized females of the East. An example would be the usage of frail wood-like structure in the construction of the harem as a pose to the fancy and decorative material that the Ottoman palaces were normally made of. This, therefore, becomes an issue when taking into consideration that a very large number of females spent a very large amount of their lives in it. It also includes decorative tilework that is made of colors and architectural techniques that were prevalent in the Ottoman Empire. For example, the usage of glazed bricks of certain colors such as blue, violet, orange and green which were adapted in Constantinople from the Anatolian Seljuk period in the 13th century, as well as different patterns made using tile mosaic is seen . This creates a realistic deception in the drawing which plays a crucial role as realism implies that this representation of the harem is accurate by normalizing such occurrences as regular. This, therefore, becomes troubling as it plays into both sides of the common representation of Eastern women, oppressed and mystified harem girls.
The imperial harem grounded women and their children in one safe place and still facilitated education and was indirectly involved in political manners and not just for the satisfaction of the male figure in their life . Additionally, it is important to note that the drawing was made targeting Western audience and the gaze that Melling sets up in the drawing excludes the viewer as an outsider and hence, upon first glance, an immediate unconscious layer of precedence is felt by the Western viewer. This causes the audience to distance themselves from the people in the painting, thus, emphasizing how different and better they are from the East. Mulling was also described by the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk as having the “soul of an Istanbullah but the eyes of a European” .
Further, in the same exhibition that features “Inside the Harem of the Sultan”, it also presents a limiting section on contemporary artwork that acts as a response from the East to such representation. An example would be “Young Women Reading” that shows a different kind of perception of the women in the Orient, educated and graceful rather than seductive. The exhibition’s aim was to portray the complex history of representation and inspiration from the Orient. However, it overlooks the prominent issue of the misrepresentation of the Orient through a lack of accurate representation and the presence of paintings such as the one discussed. The narrative of the exhibition further perpetuates the problematic depiction and imagination of Oriental art through similar themes discussed in this paper from Mullings work.
