[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-portraitchallenge-bashi-bazouk-by-jean-leon-gerome-1869":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Thanks to everyone who took part in interpreting \u003Ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me\">Jean-Léon Gérôme\u003C/a>'s painting for the Virtual Studio's Thursday #PortraitChallenge! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/149824_original-3c4201b28d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nFeel free to jump in late with these challenges, it's just fun having paintings picked out to study.  (Thanks to Philip Reeve for pointing me to this particular painting!) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/150257_original-7e0600b6a2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThere's a \u003Ca href=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me-Black_Bashi-Bazouk-c._1869.jpg\">higher-resolution version of the painting\u003C/a> over on Wikipedia, if you want to study it more closely. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/150401_original-7581f8bc79.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThe titles of these paintings we examine always make me wonder. I felt a bit sorry for 'The Ugly Duchess' we studied last time; I don't think we'd officially label a painting of an old woman 'ugly' these days. And I had no idea what 'Bashi-Bazouk' meant other than one of Captain Haddock's swear words in Tintin comics.\\r\n \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/150598_original-f1136c3ec2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Image suppied by \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Le_Woodman\">@Le_Woodman\u003C/a> on Twitter.\u003C/i> \\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/440723\">The Met in New York\u003C/a> interprets 'Bashi-barouk' as 'headless' and implies the artist dressed the soldier in textiles he had lying about the studio, not that the soldier would have owned such a fine silk outfit. I looked up the \u003Ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashi-bazouk\">Wikipedia entry for 'Bashi-Bazouk'\u003C/a> and it felt very one-sided. It says the word means, literally, 'damaged head' or 'crazy head' and was used to describe mercenaries of the Ottoman army. It notes these people were particularly known for their 'lack of discipline' and that 'their uncertain temper occasionally made it necessary for the Turkish regular troops to disarm them by force'. But it also says that they weren't paid, given any uniform or badges like the other soldiers and they just had to plunder what they could. Which doesn't make for the greatest morale, I'd say. Reading between the lines, I'd say the Bashi-bazouk had a pretty rough time.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit: And from what \u003Ca href=\"http://bunn.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">bunn\u003C/a> pointed out, some of them gave a pretty rough time, too. Unpaid troops are a VERY BAD IDEA. (See the \u003Ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batak_massacre\">Batak massacre\u003C/a> if you have a stout constitution.)\u003C/i> \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/150927_original-5eaeeddf40.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit: These two kids' entries came in late but they're too terrific not to include: 'Bashi as an insect' by Alec, age 7, and the second by Morris.\u003C/i>","2016-10-21T10:20:00.000Z","portraitchallenge-bashi-bazouk-by-jean-leon-gerome-1869",[],"#portraitchallenge: 'Bashi-Bazouk' by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1869",1776628728696]