More gratitious Dürer

[selenak]

Forgot to mention at my icons post: The "Dürer war hier" catalogue from the exhibition about his journey to the Netherlands claims this is the first portrait of a black woman in art history. Now I have no idea whether or not it is true, but in terms of this not being a sketch of some allegorical figure, or one supposed to be a mythical or historical person, or a nameless one, but the portrayal of a specific contemporary woman (note Dürer includes her name and age in the headline), I think it might be? If some Italian artists got there first, i.e. pre 1521, do tell me.

(Thinking about it, there are the Nubian pharaos of the 25th Dynasty, and any depictions would of course predate Dürer by millennia, but a quick googling doesn't give me any portrayals of its queens, and anyone else probably woul dnot be named.)



Incidentally, said catalogue also includes a portrait of Agnes (i.e. Mrs. Dürer) in middle age which I hadn't known before it, also created during this journey, as she went with him (and it took a year all in all):

Comments

[ratcreature]

Some of the Benin bronzes from the 16th century show specific queens, iirc. Of course that's sculpture not drawings or paintings. Like this bronze: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Head_of_Queen_Idia

I don't know whether they did paintings, the looted African art from that time I've seen in museums was all sculptures and masks and such.

[rydra_wong]

Yes, I think there are Ife heads which definitely beat Durer date-wise, and are naturalistic and clearly of specific individuals:

https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/chapters/ancient-africa/ife/?start=10

[selenak]

That is a stunningly beautiful head and, I agree, depicts an invidual rather than being a symbolic depiction. I suppose the catalogue guys were thinking of paintings only?

[rydra_wong]

Or European art only, or both, I guess.

I mean, it's a very notable thing that this is the first portrait of a black woman in European art history, even if African art had been doing it earlier.

Btw, I rec looking up the Ife heads -- they are breathtaking.

[oracne]

Those drawings are beautiful.

[selenak]

Aren't they just?

[redfiona99]

I knew I should have listened more to the archaeology acquaintance whose field was Nubia.

[selenak]

Alas the only archaeologist I know mostly work with medieval stuff...

[rydra_wong]

claims this is the first portrait of a black woman in art history.

If we're talking European art -- not impossible? Looks like the earliest European portraits of black men were only slightly earlier:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/28/earliest-european-portraits-of-african-men-on-show-together-for-first-time-durer-mostaert-rijksmuseum-amsterdam

While Googling I found this -- from decades later than Dürer, but man, I love her face, that's such a very distinct personality looking back at you:

https://www.tomasso.art/artworkdetail/781241/18036/portrait-of-an-african-woman-holding

[selenak]

The men: and I see one of those is by Dürer as well. :)

Carraci portrait: wow, I didn't know that, and yes, it gets across an amazing sense of personality!

[lilacsigil]

There's lots of depictions of the Queen of Sheba (who may or may not have been a real person) but the next Black woman (well, girl) in art I can think of is Giulia de’ Medici in the 1530s.

[liriaen]

I think the key words are “European” and “Portrait“. Being the incurable Borgia nut I reared at first at the description of Katherina’s portrait, because I remember depictions of people of colour in Pinturicchios frescoes for Rodrigo’s appartamenti (they recently discovered remnants of pictures of American Indians w/ headdress, too, and depictions of plants like maize in Sant’Angelo, attributable to Pinturicchio’s workshop as well) - but nothing like a character study, nothing that approaches them with this attention to psychology. I guess that’s where the Aachen description is headed, but of course one can quibble.

[selenak]

*nods*. Yes, though I would also add „woman“ to „European“ and „Portrait“. Given all the depictions of the Three Holy Kings, there would have been a good deal of black men depicted as Balthasar alone, though come to think of it, declaring one of the three wise men to be of African origin wasn‘t always the case; I don‘t recall by heart when it became the default depiction. But a picture which intends to show the person depicted, not someone else, and that person not one of the rare mixed race people who got into positions of power, like Alessandro de‘ Medici, but a servant, has to be far, far rare.

Also, hyperbole happens more often than not. There‘s a pharmacy in Bamberg which all the guides designated as the oldest in Germany, and then some tourists from Trier showed up and said no, their town has the oldest in Germany. Cue many distressed Bamberg guides, until they checked and saw the Trier pharmacy moved houses. So now Bamberg guides claim the pharmacy in Bamberg is the oldest continuing in the same building pharmacy. „First portrait of a black woman“ is snappier than adding all the qualifiers needed to make it accurate. :)

In any case, it‘s a beautiful character study, and I wonder what young Katharina made of it if she got to see it…

[watervole]

Some of the Benin Bronzes were of distinct individuals, but of course, all context was lost when they were looted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin_Bronzes