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12 Aug 18, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Anton Domenico Gabbiani
Portrait of Three Musicians of the Medici Court
Italy (c. 1687)
oil on canvas, 141 x 208 cm.
Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence
One of the more frustrating trends I’ve noticed in archives & museum collections is how many paintings that, based on the text descriptions, you would have absolutely no clue that a person of color is in it.
The boy with the parrot was probably the caretaker of the menagerie. The same artist did several other portraits of important servants in the Medici household in groups. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:…
But yeah, again, there's no indication on any of these paintings that they would fall under my purview, and I wish I could describe the untold hours I spend just combing through collections to find things to share with you all.
Sometimes I go page by page through an entire 200 folio manuscript and there's just nothing. But then, when i DO find something it makes it all worth it!

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More from @medievalpoc

medievalpoc Profile picture
13 Mar
It's been a year since my last tweet. My Patreon supporters already know I'd planned to come back this month.
I was very, very ill for the entirety of 2019.
Now things are even more complicated.
Multiple members of my family are healthcare workers in places impacted by COVID 19. My sibling’s family has COVID 19, are in military quarantine. One is in active respiratory distress.
I’m at home, staying as safe as I can be because I’m vulnerable. But I’m extremely concerned about the other effects of all of this, because I’m remarkably vulnerable to those, too.
Read 5 tweets
medievalpoc Profile picture
30 Jan 19
Anonymous (Great Britain)
The Postillion
England (1730)
Oil on Canvas, 73.5 x 62.5 cm.
Erddig Park (The National Trust), Servant’s Hall.
(A postillion rides at the head of a carriage or chaise and is part of a lord’s traveling retinue.)
So the text in that box was added a bit later than it was painted but I've transcribed it as best i can here: medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/696156408…
Basically, it’s a set of rather flippant verse that explains that although no one remembers much about him (including, apparently, his name) +
he was given a Christian burial and was a valued member of the household, with attendant wishes that he have a better afterlife than the life he had had (because of his race). He had a brother, who also played the horn, and who he did *not* get along with whatsoever.
Read 5 tweets
medievalpoc Profile picture
25 Sep 18
Giuseppe Castiglione, also known as Lang Shining (郎世寧), was born on July 19, 1688, in the central San Marcellino district of Milan, Italy. At the age of 27, he received instructions to go to China where he served as an artist at the imperial court of three emperors.
While in China, Castiglione took the name Lang Shining (郎世寧), and adapted his Western painting style to Chinese themes and taste. This painting of Xiang Fei (A woman) in European Armour was made c.1760, and resides in National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Giuseppe Castiglione
Kazaks offering horses in tribute to the Emperor Qianlong
China/Southern Italy (1757)
Ink and colors on paper; hanging scroll. 45.5 x 269 cm
Réunion des Musées Nationaux
Read 13 tweets
medievalpoc Profile picture
5 Aug 18
Portrait of Elihu Yale, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, Lord James Cavendish, Mr. Tunstal, and a Page
England (c. 1708)
Oil on Canvas, 201.3 x 235.6 cm.
Yale Center for British Art
collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/…
So, a lot of people have misunderstandings about the role of pages like the one in this painting. Yes, there’s a massive class difference between the page pictured, and the pampered children of the gentry visible behind the page that would never be bridged.
But at the same time, the page would have social, financial and other advantages well above your “average” person in that area at that time. As a member of the Duke’s household, he would have received a genteel education, instruction in social graces, fine clothing+
Read 9 tweets
medievalpoc Profile picture
5 Aug 18
I happened across some discussions about me pretty much by accident, and honestly I encourage ppl to think critically about what I post. But. If the fact that I make errors leads you to believe this info is inherently "untrustworthy", please reconsider ur concept of education
Something that keeps me so fired up about doing this is that I get to learn as much as I teach here. Another is that I'm basically liveblogging the process of research. I'm fine if ppl want to follow without that kind of engagement, but the idea is you can do this too.
The only reason I bring this up is because I want people to really think about *who* we leave room for to get it wrong sometimes, who gets the space to learn, and how its those working *outside* traditional frameworks we give the *least* leeway and freedom to.
Read 12 tweets
medievalpoc Profile picture
26 Jul 18
Tabernacle in the Namban Style
Japan, Spain (c. 1580-90s)
Urushi, wood, mother-of-pearl and silver. 34,4 x 57,8 x 32,2 cm.
Monasterio de la Encarnación, Madrid.
Patrimonio Nacional. Spain.
"The namban liturgical lacquers that have survived to the present day in churches, monasteries and convents [...] provide tangible evidence of the cross-cultural interaction that occurred between the East and West, during the so-called ‘Christian century’ in Japan."
redalyc.org/pdf/361/361298…
Read 7 tweets

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