The Moorish General Othello is a painting by David G Wilson which was uploaded on January 30th, 2008.
The Moorish General Othello
The strategic juxtaposition of commonplace objects like a chair draped with Pan-African colors, weapons traditionally seen in Orientalist paintings... more
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Price
$10,000
Dimensions
30.000 x 40.000 inches
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Title
The Moorish General Othello
Artist
David G Wilson
Medium
Painting - Oil On Canvas
Description
The strategic juxtaposition of commonplace objects like a chair draped with Pan-African colors, weapons traditionally seen in Orientalist paintings and a hand of bananas strategically placed on a table upon which there is a warrant, creates the image of Shakespeare's protagonist of the same name - Othello. Shakespeare places Othello in Italy fighting against the Moors at the battle of Lepanto in 1571. But if he were a moor, why would Othello fight against his own people? I believe he would more likely be holding the warrant for the arrest of Fr. Bartolomeo de Las Casas on charges of "Crimes against humanity", for his suggestion to the monarchs of Spain to enslave his African brothers for four hundred years. Why did Shakespeare portray Othello as a traitor to his own moorish brothers? Is this the only image that he could portray of a black man?
In the image that makes up Othello's face, we see Desdemona (Des demons - French for the demons, thereby demonizing the white woman who "condescend" to elope with a black man) lying on a bed, guarded by her eunoch, while her African maid serves her. It is significant to note that Shakespeare would use Othello to fight a crusade against his own moorish people, thus making him a traitor to his race and when he got the "Jungle fever" or "The Complex", Shakespeare made certain to kill him, at the end of the story, because of his unacceptable transgression of marrying a white woman. Does this literary outcome reflect the times in which he was writing or his personal inclination toward bigotry? This is the mindset of an imperialistic mentality.
� David G. Wilson
Uploaded
January 30th, 2008