The Power of the Gaze

Interesting lecture at the National Gallery looking at how historic and legendary black figures have been depicted in Western Art.

Olivette Otele, from the University of Bristol and author of “African Europeans: An Untold Story” took us through from the 3rd to the 19th  century. A long period to cover in an hour. The talk was more about the history and the personalities however she used good illustrations and left me with a lot to think about.

She started with St Maurice, a black Christian soldier from Thebes, who was martyred when he refused to harass a group of fellow Christians in a war. She talked his veneration in Northern Europe and how he has been depicted.

I was fascinated to learn that the first Duke of Florence, Alessandro de Medici, was mixed race. There were no portraits of him from his lifetime but again she talked about how later artists had depicted him from Vasari showed him as European but Bronzino gave him curly hair and African features.

From the 18th century we looked at Jacobus Capitein who was brought to Holland as slave but was educated and become a scholar who wrote a thesis in favour of slavery, as well as Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a musician who commissioned work from Handel who supported the French Revolution.

We finished by looking at two 19th century black models, Joseph who appears four times in Gericault’s “Wreck of the Medusa” and Pierre Louis Alexandre in Sweden.

Incidentally this was my first lecture back in the gallery and it was great to sit among other people rather than staring at a screen however I must admit that Zoom lectures have really opened up my studying and long may the balance between the two means of delivery continue.