The Image of the Black in Western Art

Detail of a troop of Nubian archers from Asyut, tomb of Prince Mesehty, Dynasty XI or XII, circa 2000 B.C. Model in painted wood. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Four volumes of The Image of the Black in Western Art are available at Amazon.com:Vol. 1Vol. 2, Part 1Vol. 2, Part 2Vol. 3, Part 1Vol. 3, Part 2 (can be ordered in advance)

Captions from The Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

This detail is from an eight-inch-high bronze statue found in 1763 in Chalon-sur-Saône (France). It is from the Hellenistic period. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.

Detail of a painted panel from the outer right-hand wing of a polyptych. From Wiener Neustadt Abbey, 1447. Stefansdom, Vienna.

Detail of Adoration of the Magi triptych. By Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1490-1510. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Detail from Lapidario of Alfonso X the Wise, fol. 97v. 13th century. Image 12 of 32. Real Monasterio, Biblioteca, Escorial, Spain.

The prophetic priestess of the Zeus Ammon Oracle in the Libyan desert. Pavement (detail). By Guidoccio Cozzarelli, 1483. Left nave, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena, Italy.

Portrait of Juan de Pareja. By Diego Velázquez, 1650. Pareja was a slave, then a freedman and an assistant to Velázquez, as well as a painter in his own right. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Theagenes Wrestling the Ethiopian Giant. By Karel van Mander III, circa 1640. Gemäldegalerie, Kassel, Germany.

Detail of statue from the north portal of the cathedral in Strasbourg. By Jean d'Aix-la-Chapelle, 1497-1503. Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg, France.

Central panel from an altarpiece. By Andrea Mantegna, circa 1466. The Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Reclining Negress. By Rembrandt van Rijn, 1658. Leeds Museums and Galleries, U.K.

Formerly attributed to Christopher Wren, 1680s. British Museum, London.

Conrad Kyeser, Bellifortis. Bohemia, before 1405. Parchment. 140 fols., 320 by 240 mm. Cod. philos. 63, fol. 122r. Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, Germany. Hickey & Robertson, the Menil Foundation, Houston.

Painted panel, 114 by 90 cm. By Master Theodoric, before 1367. Karlštejn Castle, Chapel of the Holy Cross, east wall of the choir, right side of the lower register. Ladislav Neubert, Prague, Czech Republic.

Four volumes of The Image of the Black in Western Art are now available at Amazon.com:Vol. 1Vol. 2, Part 1Vol. 2, Part 2Vol. 3, Part 1Vol. 3, Part 2 (advance order)