­
­
Holland - People of Color in European Art History

People of Color in European Art History


  1. girljanitor:

    Hieronymus Bosch

    Adoration of the Magi (c. 1510)
    Oil on wood, 138 x 72 cm
    Museo del Prado, Madrid

    The central panel of the Triptych represents the Adoration of the Magi. Several copies of the panel exist in various museums (Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Bonn, Avignon etc.).

    The panel displays the adoration of the Christ Child by the three Kings or Magi. The Infant Christ sits solemnly enthroned on his mother’s lap. The Virgin and Child resemble a cult statue beneath its baldachin, and the Magi approach with all the gravity of priests in a religious ceremony. The splendid crimson mantle of the kneeling King echoes the monumental figure of the Virgin. That Bosch intended to show a parallel between the homage of the Magi and the celebration of the Mass is clearly indicated by the gift which the oldest King has placed at the feet of the Virgin: it is a small sculptured image of the Sacrifice of Isaac, a prefiguration of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. Other Old Testament episodes appear on the elaborate collar of the second King, representing the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, and on the Moorish King’s silver orb, depicting Abner offering homage to David.

    A group of peasants have gathered around the stable at the right. They peer from behind the wall with lively curiosity and scramble up to the roof in order to get a better view of the exotic strangers. The Shepherds had seen Christ on Christmas Eve, but they frequently reappear as spectators in fifteenth-century Epiphany scenes. Generally, however, they display much more reverence than do Bosch’s peasants, whose boisterous behaviour contrasts strongly with the dignified bearing of the Magi.

    Some amusing analyses on wtfarthistory, and a few more close ups.

  2. Rembrandt van Rijn
Black Drummer and Commander
Dutch (c. 1638)
A black drummer and commander mounted on mules; riding in profile to right. c.1638 Pen and brown ink and red chalk with brown wash, touched with white and yellow. The order of the...

    Rembrandt van Rijn

    Black Drummer and Commander

    Dutch (c. 1638)

    A black drummer and commander mounted on mules; riding in profile to right. c.1638 Pen and brown ink and red chalk with brown wash, touched with white and yellow. The order of the application appears to be (1) pen and brown ink; (2) brown wash (in two tones); (3) yellow (probably oil rather than watercolour); (4) red chalk; (5) white heightening.

    [source]

  3. 1. Philip van Dijk
Jacobus Ioannes Eliza Capitein
Dutch
Engraving (1730s)
Portrait of Jacobus Capitein; a black man seated half-length, wearing gown and bands, pointing at a book in front of him; after Philip van Dijk.
Note: Lettered in lower margin...

    1. Philip van Dijk

    Jacobus Ioannes Eliza Capitein

    Dutch

    Engraving (1730s)

    Portrait of Jacobus Capitein; a black man seated half-length, wearing gown and bands, pointing at a book in front of him; after Philip van Dijk.

    Note: Lettered in lower margin with production details and two columns of five lines each, with Dutch verses by Swyghuizen: “P. van Dyk del.” and “P. Tanjé sculp.” and “Hoe heerlyk schetst de kunst hier CAPITEIN, den Moor? / … / …, die ’t heil der heidnen is.”.

    image

    2. F. van Bleyswyck

    Jacobus Capitein

    Dutch (c. 1730)

    The Hague. Stichting Iconographisch Bureau.

    Jacobus Capitein was a Dutch celebrity in the mid-1700s.

    At the age of 11, in 1728, Capitein was brought to Holland to live with van Goch in The Hague. Van Goch treated him as an adopted son and gave him the last name of Capitein (Dutch for “captain”). Jacobus was placed in school and found to excel in the study of painting, reading and writing, mathematics and the classical languages. Capitein, who was baptized by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1735, let it be known that he wished to return to Africa as a missionary. His adopted father therefore allowed him in 1737 to attend the venerable University of Leiden in order to study theology and become a minister.

    Capitein’s doctoral thesis, The Agony of Asar, has been recently translated into English:

    This is the first dissertation written by an African slave. He was brought to Holland by his owner, freed, and educated at the University of Leiden with grants from wealthy burghers. Thereafter he returned to Guinea as a missionary. His analysis presents a sweeping intellectual genealogy of Western thought on the issue of slavery. It begins by discussing the authors of antiquity, using Seneca, Horace, and Justinian to show that slavery violated the principles of natural freedom and equality, and rebutting Aristotle’s doctrine of natural slavery. Capitein concluded from Genesis that slavery entered the world as injustice to all peoples, but argued that the freedom promised in the Gospels was spiritual, not corporeal, and therefore had no civic consequences. The book represents the first scholarly work by an African on slavery, connecting Western thought and African experience.

  4. image

    Willem Janszoon Blaeu

    Map of Africa

    Dutch (c. 1644)

    click here for a huge version

    Here, I’ve made a photoset of the meticulously detailed side panels from the Dutch map of Africa posted by the illustrious diasporicroots (an AMAZING blog; you should definitely follow them!).

    Since this blog is “medieval poc” and not “medieval maps” I carefully enlarged the panels to show how each one is very much a work of art all on its own. Although the clothing worn by each respective couple in the panels is based, like many of the other contemporaneous illuminations and engravings, on imagination and hearsay, they do bear a passing resemblance to the clothing that would have been worn by those people at the time the map was made.

    I highly encourage you to read more about this masterwork of cartography at diasporicroots!

  5. diasporicroots:
“ 1644 map of Africa Made by Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
One of the most decorative and popular of all early maps of Africa, from the “golden age” of Dutch mapmaking. First issued in 1630, the map was reprinted many times...

    diasporicroots:

    1644 map  of Africa Made by Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.

    One of the most decorative and popular of all early maps of Africa, from the “golden age” of Dutch mapmaking. First issued in 1630, the map was reprinted many times between 1631 and 1667, appearing in Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish editions of Blaeu’s atlases. The maps and atlases of the Blaeu family business, carried on after Willem’s death by sons Cornelis and Joan, marked the epitome of fine engraving and coloring, elaborate cartouches and pictorial detail, and fine calligraphy—the most magnificent work of its type ever produced.

    In the format called carte à figures, this  map contains  views of the major cities and trading ports of Africa at the time: Tangier and Ceuta (Morocco), Tunis (Tunisia), Alexandria and Cairo (Egypt), Mozambique (seaport of Mozambique), Elmina (Ghana, and Grand Canary (Canary Islands) Side panels depict costumed people from areas visited along the coasts. The interior is decorated with exotic animals (lions, elephants, ostriches), which were (and still are) a major source of fascination for the public. The Nile (today’s White Nile) is shown flowing from the Ptolemaic lakes of Zaire and Zaflan. Flying fish and strange sea creatures cavort in the oceans, and the sailing ships all bear Dutch flags. Coastal names are engraved inward to give a clear, sharp outline to the continent.

    Probably the most interesting cartographic feature is the identification of specific large territories or kingdoms, which have been outlined in color, including a huge Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Monomotapa (all of southern Africa). But these seem to reflect a European sense of nationhood—something presumed and projected upon a virtually unexplored canvas—more than the actual experience of traders and explorers, who would continue to report on hundreds of smaller ethnic enclaves and political fiefdoms during the next 250 years

    Interestingly note how Africa was perceived by the Early explorers no negative connotations.

    Click here for A closer look.

    (via diasporicroots)