The Babylonian Marriage Market

The Babylonian Marriage Market is a 1875 painting by the British painter Edwin Long of young women being auctioned into marriage. It received attention for its provocative depiction of women being sold and its attention to historical detail. It was inspired by a passage in the Histories by Herodotus, and the artist painstakingly copied some of the images from Assyrian artifacts.

It is currently held in the Picture Gallery of Royal Holloway College, after being bought by Thomas Holloway in 1882, where it fetched a then-record price for a painting by a living artist at £6,615.

Famous quotes containing the words babylonian, marriage and/or market:

    Their martyred blood and ashes sow
    O’er all the Italian fields where still doth sway
    The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
    A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
    Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    For the longest time, marriage has had a guilty conscience about itself. Should we believe it?—Yes, we should believe it.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but, disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort.
    Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)