Post #4

In this project I decided to focus on the portraiture of the Duchess of Portsmouth, named The Duchess of Portrsmouth. The research in this project allowed me to understand why these portraits are made, as well as why they include certain objects (and in this case slaves) in the paintings. The project addresses the theme of borders, showing portraits of European elites with slaves brought from Africa and precious objects that were used in trade, sometimes even to acquire slaves. One of the most shocking insights I got was the lack of information on the slave in the portrait. There is a lot of information on the Duchess on the painting, which is not surprising. But I expected to at least find the young slave’s name in my research, which I didn’t. This is evident that the slave had no importance to the Duchess; she was only treated as an object that represented wealth at the time. After reading the other blog posts in this project, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the main ideas is of racialized exotica during the 20^th century in Europe.

This concept of racialized exotica is perfect to describe the mentality in the cultures of Europe during this period. Where the European powers exploited their colonies in Africa and controlled the colonies’ product, which include even the Afrikano[1] race.  Slaves, animals, and precious materials were considered the most exotic possessions available. Having these showed that the people were part of the higher-classes. In this idea, the most interesting exotic “objects” addressed are slaves. Slave’s importance in society was irrelevant. They were just a property of white people, doing all the hard work for them, while the white people just enjoyed them.

In the case of the portraiture of The Duchess of Portsmouth, the Duchess appears with a slave at her side. The fact that the slave is there shows that the Duchess has access to a lot of wealth, but another very important aspect that is not well addressed is the extent to which she exposes her skin in the painting. Her chest is exposed, revealing her extremely white skin. This showed that she was never out in the sun since she has her slaves perform the work outside, in the sun. At this time, darker skin symbolized a lower economic class.

Another image used by other students in this project is the portraiture of Mademoiselle de Blois and Mademoiselle de Nantes. This painting includes a young African slave and a small black dog. The dog and the young slave are gazing at each other. This connection in the painting seems to be showing that the dog and the slave have the same importance in society, further diminishing the importance of the race in the world at this point in time. In a way the meaning of this or my interpretation is that the black African and the dog are both viewed as animals (wild not equal to with Europeans) and below the white Europeans in social standing.

The shared idea in the blog posts for this project is the theme of trade across borders. But a common subtheme/concept found in them is recialized exotica in Europe during the 20^th century. Slaves were just exotic “objects” that represented the high-class status of the owners.

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[1] Afrikano: The term use in Africa by the African countries and its people to refer to the African continent.

"Why We Say “New Afrikan”." Malcolm X Grassroots Movement RSS. Malcom X Grassroots Movement, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.