People of Color in European Art History

  1. medievalpoc:

    Vittori Carpaccio

    Hunting on the Lagoon

    Italy (1490)

    oil on panel

    75.4 x 63.8 cm

     J. Paul Getty Museum

    The question as to why Carpaccio’s gondoliers were dressed as they were remains. They have attracted attention not only on account of their skin color and African origin, but also on account of their flamboyant dress.

    The majority of black and white gondoliers in Carpaccio’s Miracle painting are dressed alike, in caps with feathers, sumptuous (almost flashy) jackets with slashed sleeves, and eye-catching, patterned hose.The principal black gondolier in the bottom center of the painting wears a red cap with a white feather, a white shirt with a zipon, or sleeveless doublet, over it, and on top a red saietto, or jerkin. The jerkin has detachable sleeves, tied on at the shoulders with blue laces that allow the white shirt to be seen in the gap between the ties, and wide, turned-back cuffs. His hose have a black- and-white diamond pattern to mid-thigh, then a thin red band, then an interesting blue-and-white vertical pattern, and end in red shoes.

    The pommel of a dagger sticks out of his belt, and other gondoliers with their backs to the viewer have these daggers too. The second black gondolier, positioned in the center on the right-hand edge in a classic marginal position — like a couple of white gondoliers in the background — is less showily dressed, in a red cap, a red jerkin, and white hose.

    The black boatman on the left-hand side of Hunting on the Lagoon wears an identical red cap but with a large white feather, a red jerkin, or saietto, gathered at the waist by a belt, and green calze, or hose. The black boatman on the right wears a fluffy purple hat — a form of headgear also worn by several other people in the boats, perhaps to keep off the rain — a white saietto gathered at the waist by a belt, and purple hose.

    The dress of neither boatman corresponds to that worn by the majority of either the black or white gondoliers in the Miracle painting: instead of being showy and patterned, the colors are in monochrome blocks, unalleviated by stripe or pattern. However, apart from the presence of a feather, the red outfit of the boatman on the left here mirrors almost exactly that worn by the black gondolier on the right-hand edge in the Miracle painting.

    It has sometimes been thought that the gondoliers in the most flamboyant dress are wearing livery, even though no documentary evidence for this practice has been found. Although there has been frustratingly little work on the subject, this seems unlikely.

    Livery is an aristocratic preserve, not one usually associated with a mercantile republic. Michela Dal Borgo has suggested, on the other hand, that the gondoliers are wearing special costume reserved for feast days and festivals, which is a much more likely explanation.

    -Kate Lowe, “Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice”, Renaissance Quarterly, 66:2 (2013): 412-452.

    2. Tagged:  Black Gondoliers   art appreciation   Kate Lowe   professions   medieval professional   Renaissance   Renaissance professions   jobs   gondoliers 

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