(Othello and Desdemona in Venice)

This painting is by French artist Theodore Chasseriau, from the 19th century. It particularly resonated with me at first glance because the artist puts it on the viewer to determine how Othello as a subject of this painting is supposed to be seen. Whether it is a deliberate choice, bad lighting, or simply the artist’s style, Othello’s face is undoubtedly supposed to be hard to make out. I’ve looked at different versions of this painting, and in each one, even when the lighting seems to be better and the image clearer, Othello’s face and the details of it are difficult to see. Othello is a Moor, he is dark-skinned, but something tells me that the artist did not look upon this fact to make the artistic decision he ended up making. The artist clearly looks to represent Othello as darkness, as shadow, as an overwhelmingly bad presence, corrupting Desdemona’s pure image. This is evidenced by the way the shadow falls over the top half of Desdemona, while her white, flowing gown is in the light. The artist wants to show that part of Desdemona is still uncorrupted by Othello’s influence. This is highlighted especially by the contrast in Othello’s clothing. His clothing is rich and dark and he wears a turban. The play however makes no mention of it, and the play itself makes Othello’s character clear to be a Venetian who has cast away his Muslim roots.

All in all, this is not a positive depiction of Othello. The influence of Orientalism was the strongest factor that influenced the artist to make these decisions. Orientalism was a popular theory among the Western world, particularly Western academia in the 19th century, and though our study of it has only applied to the reading of The Arabian Nights, there is undoubtedly a mark of Orientalism on this painting. Othello, even though he has canonically turned away from his former religious identity, is still depicted in this painting as “one of those”. The artist doesn’t seem to care about canon, the artist portrays Othello here as a dark, evil Muslim who corrupts fair Venetian girls.