#MuseumsUnlocked #Portraiture Most images of Africans in European art pre #C19 fall into one of two categories: servants, or so called “Blackamoors,” and legendary/ religious figures, like St. Maurice. Very little thought has been given to these images as portraits. 
It would admittedly be hard to link such images to individual sitters. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Scholars, for example, have identified historical actors who served as models for popular figures in #C18 #porcelain, such as Falstaff, as portrayed by James Quinn.
The #Meissen figurine that shows the „Blackamoor“ (a term that conflates an Arab or Muslim with a black African) was made for the Court of Augustus III in Dresden, where meticulous records were kept of everything. Surely there must be names of servants somewhere in a register?
And given that Matthias Grünewald‘s painting of the „Meeting of St. Ersam and St. Maurice“ c. 1517-23 @ Alte Pinakothek, Munich, shows the then Bishop of Mainz, Albrecht of Brandenburg, as St. Ersam, we should we at least not ask if Grünewald had a specific model for St. Maurice?
The long silence in #histart about Africans in early modern European art has thankfully been slowly broken by scholars like T.F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe. But we can do so much more. My grandfather used to say, you are alive as long as someone remembers your name. #BlackLivesMatter
