Odalisque. An odalisque was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan.
It can also be transliterated odahlic, odalisk, and odaliq. Joan DelPlato has described the term's shift in meaning from Turkish to English and French: The English and French term odalisque derives from the Turkish 'oda', meaning chamber; thus an odalisque originally meant a chamber girl or attendant.
In western usage, the term has come to refer specifically to the harem concubine. By the eighteenth century the term odalisque referred to the eroticized artistic genre in which a nominally eastern woman lies on her side on display for the spectator.
In contrast to European depictions of nude harem women, they more often wore androgynous robes resembling those worn by the male pages of the palace. The conditions of the Ottoman harem resembled a monastery for young girls more than the bordello of European imagination.
W. S. Gilbert refers to the Grace of an odalisque on a divan in Colonel Calverley's song If You Want A Receipt For That Popular Mystery from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience. In popular use, the word odalisque also may refer to a mistress, concubine or paramour of a wealthy man. During the 19th century, odalisques became common fantasy figures in the artistic movement known as Orientalism, being featured in many eroti
It can also be transliterated odahlic, odalisk, and odaliq. Joan DelPlato has described the term's shift in meaning from Turkish to English and French: The English and French term odalisque derives from the Turkish 'oda', meaning chamber; thus an odalisque originally meant a chamber girl or attendant.
In western usage, the term has come to refer specifically to the harem concubine. By the eighteenth century the term odalisque referred to the eroticized artistic genre in which a nominally eastern woman lies on her side on display for the spectator.
In contrast to European depictions of nude harem women, they more often wore androgynous robes resembling those worn by the male pages of the palace. The conditions of the Ottoman harem resembled a monastery for young girls more than the bordello of European imagination.
W. S. Gilbert refers to the Grace of an odalisque on a divan in Colonel Calverley's song If You Want A Receipt For That Popular Mystery from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience. In popular use, the word odalisque also may refer to a mistress, concubine or paramour of a wealthy man. During the 19th century, odalisques became common fantasy figures in the artistic movement known as Orientalism, being featured in many eroti
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