This cute painting by Paolo Uccello (XVth century) shows the Christian version of the mythological story of the fair damsel in need of a valiant knight in shining armor to rescue her from the dragon. The story tells about her family leaving her as an appeasing present to salvage the whole city. In this painting they appear in the far left, walking towards the protective city walls, after having left the girl to the mercy of the beast. Really loving people, speaking of toxic relations.... Were we to judge by her rich clothes and red shoes, she does not look to have been mistreated or enslaved, but living with people who would gladly put her in harm´s way to save themselves is indeed a very subtle form of slavery. The gilded cage, all that money can buy but none of the emotional closeness and consideration of feeling safe among her kin. She was lucky St. George was around and was a man of action who didn´t need a three-copy written request to asses her situation, kill the dragon and liberate her. The dragon is a weird nasty beast, with no arms, only wings, the legs and the serpentine neck and his powerful head. Could be read as the image of the monstrosity she was released from.
In Aaron Douglas´ painting Into bondage, painted in 1944 (taken from http://blackandbluespeople.blogspot.com/) the cool hues and clean graphic superimposed figures of this Harlem Renaissance artist portrays the horrid subject of man enslaving man. The details are explicit, from the shackles dabbed in red in striking contrast with the bluish figures to the trade ships in the far horizon, close to shore to take the human cargo a world away. The powerful figures of the African captives depict all the spectrum of emotions, from the defeated acceptance of fate to the cry of despair and rebellion, throwing chained arms on high. Only one captive calmly fixes his eyes on a star and its light shines thru his head, even more transparent as it passes him. As long as he could see the star, that man knew he would always be free. Freedom starts in the mind and in the heart before it materializes in real time. In captivity many Africans adopted a liberating faith and from that day on their cruel fate slowly overturned until the day human laws put in paper the obvious: all men are born to be free.
Jean Honoré Fragonard poses another form of captivity in Le Verrou-The Bolt. Seems to be that "a willing soul cannot be raped" but what is happening is not clear, represented like a minuet step middle of the road between Rococó, Neoclassicism and Romanticism, with the disheveled bed, the doll-like lady and the powerful male figure. He seems to be holding her while reaching for the bolt to open the door, action she seems unsuccessfully trying to prevent from doing....Who is the captive here? Is he going to abduct her? Is he fleeing from her? Human relations are not easy to read. Having sex is supposed to be a quite normal, fun and healthy activity, yet few human needs are shrouded with more mental cobwebs, insecurities, and taboos...The Nike motto -Just do it- is totally out of place regarding an XVIIIth century painting, but seems like a reality check. Pages and pages -and blog stuff- have been written on this painting (IE. http://billy-the-kidney.blogspot.com/2008/09/seeking-freud-in-fragonard.html)yet what happened or didn´t happen here is still a mystery the artist leaves his audience to solve. A real person seen from a controlling and insecure lover´s eyes as a "dream person" is enslaved from the start. Every time the real person acts, the one that "invented" him-her will react with anger for not accommodating to the one sided perception of "what must be" and "should be" in the controller´s mind. Belittling, silence, verbal or even physical threats and even aggression is the answer to intimacy and closeness. The insecure controller cannot connect with the real person in front of him-her: too scary, maybe in the process he-she might find his-her own limited and needy humanity. The real person has to battle to be free and in the process try to free his-her captor. Most times only separation ends this nightmare for the real person. That type of relationship makes the shackles of the African captives look frail in comparison.
The last image by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), Daniel in the Lion's Den, 1907-1918; Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 41 1/8" x 49 7/8", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Photograph © 2009 Museum Associate/LACMA at
http://ericmerrell.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/the-first-black-american-art-exhibit-in-los-angeles-1929/
shows the tale of captivity in the space between two Bible verses. Daniel was punished with being shut up in the lions´s den for adoring God. No verse tells us what Daniel did that night, but the Book´s silence gives this African American artist the possibility to paint how God´s protection looks in the face of real danger. In the middle of the night the moon shines thru a skylight on the meditative figure of the prophet, surrounded by felines showing him a lot of respect, to the point of refusing to go close to him, as if that human were encircled by an invisible protective field. The powerful strength of supreme vulnerability placed upon God´s hands. God was preserving him safe in the midst of the trial, making him freer than the king who spent the night tossing and turning consumed by worry and remorse for his stupid decree had endangered his friend´s life.
Four images and four stories to reflect about bondage, chains and freedom. In a time when Human Rights coexist with the widespread pirate/guerrilla/organized delinquency kidnappings and killings, with rare but still existing slavery and trade of humans, with toxic family/couple relations, with addictions of all kinds, it will give some food for thought, finding that the concepts of "free" and "enslaved" are separated by a very thin line.
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