Painting by William Salter of Othello weeping over Desdemona’s body. Oil on canvas, ca. 1857.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello

I chose this painting by William Salter because I felt there was a perfect connection with the depiction of the sorrow in the last few scenes of Othello.  This is the moment after Othello realizes that everything Iago had told him was false and that Desdemona was truly faithful to him.  At this point it was too late because he already killed Desdemona and now he mourns over her body and holds her hand.  You see the pillows on the floor by the bed which could show that Othello had smothered Desdemona.  It looks like Emilia has a scowl on her face and it seems like she may be scorning Othello for what he has done.  Behind them we see who I think is Iago, Gratiano and Montano respectively.  I found it interesting that William Salter depicted who I assume to be Iago as a black man.  The reason I think this is Iago is because he has an angry look on his face and he is holding what looks like a sword in his hand, which as we know from the play, he uses to kill his wife Emilia.  It also looks like Gratiano is trying to hold back Iago from what ever he may do.

My only question about the painting would be, is the black man on the left of the painting actually Iago?  I’m not sure which other character it might be because besides Othello, Iago was the only character in this scene to use his sword.  Throughout the play Iago made many racial comments about Othello, so I felt it was pretty clear that his character was white.  Maybe the argument could be made that he made those comments because of his jealousy that even as a moor in this society Othello was able to reach such a high social status while Iago could not.