MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE
Hidden Histories - Africans in Medieval and Renaissance Art
The Adoration of the Magi (detail), about 1500. Museum no. C.74-1919, C.75-1919. Given by J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (click image for larger version)
The collection of medieval and Renaissance art at the V&A highlights many aspects of the European view of Africa during this period. Recent research has focused on objects that depict black Africans. These have been grouped here to show some ways in which Africans were represented in the past, and to suggest why they were seen in this way.
Europe's black population began to grow during the 13th and 14th centuries. It increased more dramatically in the 1440s, when Portuguese naval expeditions opened a new trade route between Europe and Africa, and traders began to import black slaves directly from sub-Saharan Africa. Many black slaves were also brought into Renaissance Italy via the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic. By 1505 as many as 140,000 to 170,000 Africans had been captured for sale in Europe.
Acknowledgements
The V&A would like to thank the following people for their contributions, comments and advice: Meghan Callahan, Anne-Marie Eze, Professor J M Massing, Professor Elizabeth McGrath and Dinah Winch.
However, not all of the images of Africans highlighted here relate directly to slavery. Africans appear in medieval and Renaissance art in a number of guises, from king to servant and from real to imaginary.
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Heathen
The textile is an orphrey, the decorative strip sewn on to the back of a chasuble, the garment worn by a Catholic priest when celebrating the Mass.
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Adoration: The Three Kings
These objects all show the Adoration of the Magi, or the visit of the three wise men or kings to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus.
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Heraldry: The Moor's Head
The objects featured here all include the head of a moor, or black African, in profile. The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century.
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Duke Alessandro de' Medici
The Medici, an Italian family of merchants, bankers, rulers, patrons and collectors, dominated the political and cultural life of Florence from the 15th century to the mid 18th century.
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Servant and Attendant
A fashion for possessing black domestic servants developed in Europe in the mid 15th century. Black African servants were used as status symbols by their owners.
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