Off to the market 1860

Anton Romako’s painting, "Off to the Market," presents us with an image of a young Italian woman carrying goods, probably made sometime in the mid-19th century. Romako's intimate portrait depicts a tradition of labor and commerce, visualized through the figure of a woman who might have walked this path daily. The basket of produce on her head and the bundle of wheat in her arms, suggests a society where agricultural labor was central to economic survival. Her traditional costume and posture reflect the regional identity and the role of women in the rural economies of the time. It would be interesting to know more about the markets where she might have traded and the social structures that governed those spaces. Understanding the painting means looking beyond its surface beauty, investigating the socio-economic conditions of rural Italy in the 19th century. By consulting historical records, and studies of regional economies, we can understand more about the world this image represents.