Giza, Egypt: a dance by sword dancers in the commandant's house. Watercolour by Luigi Mayer, 17--.

What you are looking at

A crowded interior scene set in what appears to be a substantial stone building—the commandant's house in Gaza. The space is defined by a vaulted ceiling with exposed wooden beams and small high windows with latticed screens. In the foreground, a central female dancer in a flowing, translucent garment with wide sleeves executes a dramatic spin or turn, her dress billowing outward in an expansive arc. She is flanked by at least two other female figures in similar diaphanous dress, also mid-movement. The surrounding crowd—perhaps thirty to fifty figures—fills the shadowed interior, many wearing darker robes and headdresses typical of late 18th-century Levantine dress. Some spectators hold curved swords or sabres, and the posture of several suggests active participation or imminent movement. The composition draws the eye toward the luminous central dancer through careful use of light and shadow; the open archway at the right admits pale exterior light, framing palm trees and distant fortifications, anchoring the scene in Egypt. The watercolour technique renders the interior in warm ochres and deep browns, with selective washes of pigment creating an atmosphere of intimate, contained energy.

The dancing

The principal dancer occupies a near-frontal stance with knees bent and torso engaged in a vigorous rotational movement; both arms are held high and spread, with hands delicate and fingertips extended, creating width and extension through the arms. The dress—apparently a long, lightweight cotton or linen robe—catches and flares dramatically, suggesting rapid, continuous spinning motion. Two companion dancers visible to either side of her adopt similar arm positions and appear to be turning in synchrony or call-and-response. The spectators surrounding them are densely clustered, many in profile, their body weight settled, observing rather than dancing. Several figures in the crowd hold curved sabres at various angles, raising the question of whether this is sword dancing, sword-accompanied dancing, or armed spectators attending a dance.

The dance depicted

The title refers to this as a dance by sword dancers (balletto arabo con pantomina), yet the image shows primarily female performers in whirling motion rather than the martial footwork typically associated with male sword dancing in the Levant. The scene may represent a gendered variant, a social celebration incorporating both dance and armed display, or a moment of female solo or group spinning within a mixed gathering. The rapid rotational movement, extended arms, and weightless appearance of the dress are consistent with Levantine or North African spinning dances such as those performed in celebration or festivity. Without clearer evidence of bladework or formal choreography, the precise style cannot be determined, though the setting and dress suggest a late 18th-century Arab cultural practice.

How it was made

This is a watercolour on paper, likely hand-tinted or fully painted in transparent glazes. The medium allows for the subtle gradations of shadow in the stone vault and the luminous quality of the dancer's dress caught in motion. The technique conveys atmosphere and depth effectively—the cool tones of the distant view through the arch contrast with the warm interior, and the selective use of bright pigment on the central figures draws focus. Watercolour's immediacy and the artist's sure hand with the brush suggest this was either a careful record made on site or a studied composition based on field notes. The medium was typical of travel art and documentary practice in the late 18th century, suggesting this work was intended for a educated European audience with interest in Near Eastern customs.

About this work

This watercolour documents a dance performance witnessed in Gaza during the late 18th century, executed by the artist Luigi Mayer, a prolific recorder of Ottoman and Levantine scenes. It captures a moment of social and cultural practice—a gathering in the residence of a military commander where female dancers perform a vigorous spinning dance before a mixed audience that includes armed men. The work sits at the intersection of orientalist documentation, travel art, and dance ethnography; it preserves a visual record of performance practice that would otherwise be known only through written accounts. The painting is significant both as evidence of late 18th-century Levantine dance and as an example of how European artists of the period approached the representation of non-Western cultural practices—with attentiveness to architectural setting, costume, and crowd dynamics, though filtered through the visual conventions and assumptions of the time.

How to look at it

Attend to the moment of the spin—the artist has frozen the movement at the instant of maximum extension, when the dress is fully flared and the dancer's arms are extended. This is not a static pose but a captured instant of rapid motion, conveyed through the billowing fabric and the sense of centrifugal force. Notice how the artist uses light to distinguish the dancers from the crowd: the spectators are rendered in warm shadow, while the central dancer's dress is lit from within, almost luminous. The curved sabres in the crowd are not obscured but displayed—they are integral to the scene's composition and meaning, whether as props, as signals of male participation or authority, or as symbols of the occasion. The architectural frame—the vault, the archway, the distant view—positions the viewer as an external observer entering a closed, intimate space, a compositional strategy typical of orientalist art but here used to establish the specificity of place.

The artist

Luigi Mayer (c. 1755–1803) was an Italian painter and draughtsman known for his travels through the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. He worked as a court painter and topographical artist, producing hundreds of watercolours documenting architecture, landscapes, and scenes of daily life across the Levant, Egypt, and Greece. His work was widely circulated in Europe through engravings and publications; he was a skilled recorder of both monuments and human activity, and his images were valued as accurate documentation by his contemporaries. Mayer's practice exemplifies late 18th-century travel art—combining aesthetic skill with antiquarian and ethnographic interest.

The period

The late 18th century saw growing European interest in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, accelerated by Napoleon's campaign (1798–1801) and the broader orientalist movement in art and literature. Dance in the Levant and Egypt was rarely depicted by European artists; most knowledge was filtered through written travel accounts. Female performers in public or semi-public settings were a subject of particular fascination and anxiety for European observers, who often interpreted what they saw through the lens of harem culture and exoticism. The architectural and military details in Mayer's composition—the fortified residence, the vaulted stone building, the armed men—reflect the political reality of late Ottoman Gaza, a strategic garrison town. In Europe during this period, dance was increasingly being documented, classified, and aestheticized through engraving and publication; Mayer's watercolours fed into this broader appetite for visual knowledge of distant lands.

Where it lives

The work is held in the Wellcome Collection, which acquired it as part of its holdings of travel art, antiquarian prints, and medical and scientific illustration. Wellcome's collecting practice emphasizes documentary and ethnographic material; the inclusion of this dance scene reflects the collection's broad interest in recording human practice and cultural difference across time and geography.

Dance in this work

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