Slave Market in Ancient Rome

Slave Market in Ancient Rome is an oil-on-canvas painting from about 1884 by the French artist Jean-Leon Gerome, known for combining classical, romantic and realist elements in his work, now held in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It portrays an ancient Roman slave auction in progress, centered on a nude woman standing on an elevated platform who shields herself from the crowd's view with a raised hand, while a second unclothed woman crouches nearby in a defensive posture. An older clothed woman holding an infant, surrounded by nude children, shows visible dread at her impending sale and probable separation from her children, while men in the background keep transaction records and other enslaved men look on. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/