The Schiava Slave

‘Schiava’ is Italian for slave, and the alternative title for this marble nude figure is “The Greek Slave”. She is shown, head bowed, forced to reluctantly exhibit her body to potential purchasers at a slave market. No clue is given to the location of the slave market, but Venetian and Genoese merchants traded in slaves from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including selling to a domestic market, until the early fifteenth century. In the late 1360’s the author Francesco Petrarch recorded witnessing the unloading of slaves from Venetian merchant galleys.

The sculpture is mounted on a Sienna marble base.