odalisque
Sign in to savethumbnail|300px|Marià Fortuny's The Odalisque
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Origin as the Turkish ''odalık''
- Later Western usage of the term
- See also
- References
- Sources
thumbnail|300px|Marià Fortuny's The Odalisque
An odalisque (, ) was an enslaved chambermaid or a female house slave attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. In western European usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refers to the eroticized artistic genre in which a woman is represented mostly or completely nude in a reclining position, often in the setting of a harem. It was part of a fascination with Orientalism, particularly in Great Britain and France. alt=|thumb|Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, [[Grande Odalisque]]