Borders Project-Post #1

The starting point of my project is focused on the artwork Portrait of the Duchess of Portsmouth, 1682, by Pierre Mignard. I would like to explore the theme of portraiture of this time, and how it coincides with the representation of people of African descent (slaves or servants painted in the portraits of wealthy Europeans). I am particularly interested in not only how the young girl in this portrait is portrayed—as well as others in similar portraits—but also the objects she holds. I chose this work in part because I want to explore not only how wealthy Europeans chose to represent their servants (and messages they wanted to promote), but also how they treated and regarded them. I want to learn more about life for African slaves who were in wealthy European homes. It would be very interesting if I can find significant accounts of how their lives were and if that information was potentially conveyed in the visual representations.

Another point about this painting that I want to study further is what the little girl is holding, specifically the red coral. The red coral was very intriguing to me because I learned about its significance in certain dress practices in Benin (specifically coral bead crowns for the Oba in the Benin Kingdom) in a previous class. The coral was traded within the Kingdom with traders from the Mediterranean. Tracing the trade of things like red coral or pearls, and connecting potential connotations with the paintings I will research, could help further elucidate the means of visual representation employed by these wealthy Europeans. I want to further research the importance or value of the red coral, shell, and pearls, and connect that to export and trade with African countries, while making connections between these things and why they would be included in the portraiture with the servants.

This project relates to borders with respect to the influence of things like trade (of materials such as pearls and red coral), which connects multiple European and African countries. Further, the trade was not one-sided—the Europeans desired certain goods that became available during colonization; however people in African countries also desired and acquired goods important to them. Also, Europeans used not only the goods garnered from expanded trade to convey certain messages in their portraiture, but also used servants from Africa to support those messages (the ethics of which, from a modern-day stand point, will most definitely be explored in this project). Thus, European portraiture was influenced by colonial expansion.

Based on what I know at this point, the inclusion of African slaves/servants in the portraits of wealthy and important European people is mainly to convey the wealth of those Europeans. The little girl is dressed in fine clothing she holds objects that are valuable, which further solidifies that the woman must have considerable wealth. The fact that the woman has attendants such as this little girl also connotes the amount of money she possesses. With respect to the juxtaposition of the woman with the girl, skin color contrast is also meant to highlight the very white skin of the woman. This further illustrates how wealthy the woman is—she is leisurely and does not have to work, but can remain indoors (thus remaining very pale). I want to explore this painting and others like it more, paying particular attention to how the African servants are portrayed (and if I can find out more information about their lives and if this can be seen in how they are painted).