Phryne vor dem Areopag

Gérôme showed this at the Paris Salon of 1861, and it caused a small scandal, called indecent by critics even as crowds queued for it. It stages an old story from ancient Athens. Phryne, a famous courtesan, is on trial before the grave judges of the Areopagus, accused of impiety. According to the legend her defender, in a last gambit, tore away her robe so the court would be swayed by her beauty, and she was acquitted. Gérôme paints the instant of the reveal. She twists away and hides her face in her arm while the row of old men recoils. He was a careful painter of surfaces, and the whole drama turns on that one flung-back purple cloth.