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 20th 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 20th century. Slaves were
just exotic “objects” that represented the high-class status of the owners.
[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.
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