Another night in the stocks

Posted by Tanos on Thu 11 May 06, 2:21 PM

Tags: paintings

Last month I posted about some modern paintings by Nicolay Bessonov which included stocks being used to hold female captives in prisons (rather than just being used for public humiliation.) Now I've found a couple of strikingly similar harem pictures involving stocks from the 19th century.

They're both by Ferencz-Franz Eisenhut, a Hungarian artist who lived from 1857 to 1903. The first and milder of the two, "The Pasha's Concubine", shows a pair of empty stocks in the foreground, and two male guards guarding the sleeping concubine. Her wrists are crossed and braceleted, but it's not certain whether she's just in an odd position, or whether she has already been bound. However, there's a very suggestive black band going diagonally across both crossed wrists, so my money is on her already being tied.

The second picture is his "Before Punishment", which shows a set of stocks in use. As before, a guard keeps watch, but this time a double pair of ankle stocks holds two naked harem slaves laid out on a carpet. The far one, who is required to maintain a face-down orientation by the stocks, is olive skinned and sleeping peacefully on a cushion - in fact, she has that serene look that bound submisives get when feeling valued and owned; but her ivory-skinned companion, who has no choice but to lie on her back, is arching her back over a bolster and looking towards the guard, who dutifully looks away.

Edited Tue 30 Jun 09, 10:03 PM by Tanos

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