MS01.01.03.B01.F25.039

OverviewTranscribeVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Complete

13

for the aid of refugees of the Greek Civil War.

Another painting entitled (SLIDE #17) [u]Portrait of a
Gentleman[/u] in the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum
of Art, executed about the same time as Hardy's portrait of
Abraham, shows a handsome Black gentlemen of mixed ancestry
graciously attired in the fashionable style of his day.
Painted around 1830, the work is not signed and at the
present time not attributed to any known artist.

I wish also to share with you what some writers have
singled out as the black portrait which while attempting
to show dignity of character instead reveals the prime
depiction of the "noble savage". The work to which I refer
is the (SLIDE #18) [u]Portrait Cinque[/u] by Nathaniel Jocelyn
painted in 1840. Jocelyn, no doubt, considered himself
giving an actual portrait of bravery and heroism through
his depiction of Cinque, The Mendi Prince enslaved aboard
the Amistad in 1839 prior to the time that the take over
of the Spanish ship by the Mendi was carried out. (STORY
OF AMISTAD) It is doubtful that Jocelyn actually saw Cinque
in person, backed by the fact that those historical symbols
one would expect to see in a portrait of this type are not
present or even alluded to in Cinque's character. Though
the slaves aboard the Amistad took the guns and swords of
the Spanish captors to carry out the mutiny, Jocelyn shows
Cinque with spear in hand ignoring firearms, the solution
to the slaves' successful takeover. Yet Jocelyn was attempting

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page