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Black Tronies in Seventeenth-Century Flemish Art and the African Presence

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Black Tronies in Seventeenth-Century Flemish Art and the African Presence tronies BlackBernadette van Haute* in seventeenth-century Flemish art and the African presence * Bernadette van Haute is Associate the Maghreb cannot have been very numerous Professor in the Department of Art History, in Antwerp at that time, and it may be that Visual Arts and Musicology at the University all three masters [Rubens, Van Dyck and of South Africa. Jordaens] used the same model’. More recently Kolfin (2008:78) made a similar statement: Abstract Having a genuine black model at one’s disposal must have been a great event In this article I examine the production of artistically speaking. ... at least two other tronies or head studies of people of African painters from Rubens’ circle made oil origin made by the Flemish artists Peter Paul sketches of this man which seem to have Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jan I Brueghel, been inspired by Rubens’ study heads: Jacob Jordaens and Gaspar de Crayer in an Jacob Jordaens ... around 1620 and attempt to uncover their use of Africans1 as Gaspar de Crayer ... in the mid-1620s. models. In order to contextualise the research, Although Jordaens’ studies are definitely of the actual presence of Africans in Flanders the same man, this is harder to ascertain in the case of De Crayer’s work. is investigated. Although no documentation exists to calculate even an approximate Adding to this point of view, Massing (2011:1) number of Africans living in Flanders at that states that Rubens painted the same person time, travel accounts of foreigners visiting four times in the Brussels painting, ‘suggesting the commercial city of Antwerp testify that people of African origin were still rare in to its cosmopolitan character. A general Antwerp at the time’. In order to verify these perception of black people in those days claims, I set out in the first place to find out can be extrapolated from the notebooks of more about the presence of African people in Rubens and contemporary theological views. Flanders and how they were perceived in the The examination of black tronies starts with seventeenth century. Evidence of artists’ direct the studies of Rubens, made after live models contact with people of African origin exists in first in Italy and then in his workshop in the form of tronies or head studies, hence the Antwerp. By comparing various African head main focus of this article is on the examination studies and considering them in the context of head studies by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony of contemporary studio practices involving van Dyck, Jan I Brueghel, Jacob Jordaens and assistants (Van Dyck) and collaborators Gaspar de Crayer. The production of tronies (Brueghel), a historically more accurate was a studio practice which involved not only picture emerges regarding the production of the master of the workshop but also pupils, such studies. Jordaens and De Crayer also assistants and collaborators. By comparing the made black tronies for use in history paintings, tronies and considering them in their cultural- and by tracing their appearance in a select historical context, I aim to trace some form of number of works it is possible to distinguish interaction between the different artists and to their respective models. Assumptions draw conclusions regarding their use of African regarding the extent of the influence of models. Rubens are thus put in perspective while giving credit to contributions made by Van Presence of Africans in Flanders Dyck, Jordaens and De Crayer to the study of African people. According to Debrunner (1979:34), soon after the Portuguese had started exploring Introduction the African continent in search of trading opportunities, the first African slaves were There is the assumption that there were very shipped to Portugal in 1436. The Portuguese few Africans in Antwerp in the seventeenth traded in return with goods obtained from century and that artists were thus confined the Spanish possessions of the Netherlands. to one model, namely the black man painted This explains the early presence of Africans by Rubens in his famous Four Studies of the travelling with these merchants in Flemish Head of a Black Man.2 D’Hulst (1982:110) trading cities such as Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp first remarked that ‘dark-skinned natives of and Bruges (Schreuder 2008:23). Two well- 18 de arte no 91 2015 ISSN 0004-3389 pp 18–38 © University of South Africa Press Black tronies in seventeenth-century Flemish art and the African presence known artworks are often cited as evidence of keep and sell slaves (Haarnack and Hondius the presence of black people in Flanders in the 2008:90–91). Whether free or enslaved, these early sixteenth century. They are the Portrait black servants had a very low social status. of Katherina (1521) drawn by Albrecht Dürer3 To have an African servant became a fashion and the Portrait of an African Man (1520–25), which, according to Debrunner (1979:92), painted by the Haarlem artist Jan Mostaert4 proved particularly popular in the Spanish while in Antwerp or Mechelen. Netherlands in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese maintained a brisk trade The Duke of Alva’s introduction of two with Antwerp in the course of the sixteenth new taxes in 15718 was the deathblow century. African products that were shipped to for the Antwerp trade, as it caused a great Lisbon were mostly transported to Antwerp, number of merchants to leave the city (Denucé the main distribution centre for African raw 1937:82). The decline was gradual and materials, turning the city into the most inexorable until the Treaty of Munster in 1648 powerful colony of Portuguese merchants when the northern Netherlands gained its (Denucé 1937:42). The shipping company independence and took control of international of the Portuguese merchant De Haro, for trade relations. Dutch colonial expansion example, first established in Lisbon, became explains the growing presence of Africans in permanently located in Antwerp (Denucé the northern Netherlands in the course of the 1937:38). The Antwerp firm Ximenes, which seventeenth century (Massing 2011:229). formed a partnership with the family branch In Antwerp, on the other hand, despite its in Lisbon, became one of the most influential collapse as a major economic centre, the first businesses in Western Europe. The last decades of the seventeenth century were still male representatives of the Antwerp branch, marked by the fortunes made in the previous namely Duarte, Manoël and Gonçalo Ximenes century. Although their numbers had dwindled d’Arragon, resided in a spacious palace on the considerably, there was still a large contingent Meir (Denucé 1937:50–57). These foreigners of southern European merchants. The members brought with them their families, fashions and of the Antwerp branch of the Ximenes firm, for customs, including their slaves and servants. example, were still running a lucrative business According to Debrunner (1979:57), and made a generous donation to the Church of [i]t has been stated that in that harbour Our Lady in 1619 (Denucé 1937:57). [Antwerp] was the greatest European This scenario is confirmed by Goris (1940), colony of Africans after Lisbon.5 Numerous who compiled a picture of Antwerp based on baptisms of black children are recorded; travel accounts written by foreign visitors to the e.g. on October 13 1591, ‘an African city in the seventeenth century. He states that child in the family of Henrique Diaz the sons of Spanish merchants and officials Milan.’ There are also quite a number who married in Antwerp filled important of documents available concerning positions in the magistrate while some enfranchisements of Africans. Thus in Portuguese Jews kept the diamond industry 1566 Antoine Rodrigues was liberated, ‘an going. These merchants and magistrates were African from Cape Verde who had stayed wealthy and lived in palatial homes with lush for 24 years in Antwerp’.6 gardens (Goris 1940:49). The Portuguese Some of the Africans staying in Antwerp merchant Duarte,9 for example, whose father were ‘free blacks’ employed as servants; dominated the diamond and pearl industry others were slaves owned by Spanish and by the beginning of the seventeenth century, Portuguese masters (Goris 1923: 541–544).7 owned one of those splendid houses where Although Antwerp did not take part in the foreign dignitaries would reside during their slave trade (Denucé 1937:79) and the city’s visit to Antwerp (Goris 1940:119). Apart from law actually prohibited enslavement (Blakely living a princely lifestyle, he also built up an 1993:226), the judiciary in Antwerp was impressive art collection. Constantijn Huygens not always consistent in its attitude towards was a close friend of the Duartes and together slavery. Africans who were baptised were not they would visit painters to buy artworks (De officially allowed to be enslaved. And if slaves Clippel 2006:24; Goris 1940:120). Duarte’s petitioned the authorities, they had to be freed. neighbour, the merchant De Castro, also In practice, however, it was entirely possible to received royal guests (Goris 1940:120). de arte no 91 2015 19 Bernadette van Haute A telling remark regarding the Spanish (Erickson 1993:501–502). Given the strong presence in Antwerp was made by Johann impact of the Counter-Reformation in Flanders Wilhelm Neumayr, who formed part of the at that time, religious values may well have entourage of Duke Johann Ernst of Saxen- played a crucial role in the construction of an Weimar on his visit to Antwerp in 1613. African identity in the minds of Flemish artists. He seemed to be quite overwhelmed by the From a religious point of view, Europeans many Spanish in Antwerp, commenting that had a positive image of Ethiopia as it was instead of merchants and traders, nothing ruled by Christian kings (Schreuder 2008:22).
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