Completed Continental European after 1800 5 comments Could this work by Monticelli be based on a play or an opera?
Photo credit: National Galleries of Scotland
Can anyone identify the subject of this painting? Could it be based on a play or opera?
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4 comments
As Frances probably knows there are similar paintings in the Burrell collection which may be related to the theatre or opera
Could it represent a scene from Gounod’s The Queen of Sheba, first performed in 1862? Scene IV takes place in the summer palace of Suliman, possibly the ‘oriental’ figure seated on the right of our painting. In this scene Suliman begins to doubt Balkis’s love for him and learns of her clandestine meeting with Adoniram. Monticelli appears to contrast the crestfallen figure of the Ottoman ruler with the carefree frivolity of his harem.
This seems quite possible
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