fig. 43 Antonio Averlino known as Filarete (Italian, ca. 1400–69), Arrival of the Ethiopians, detail from the central door of the Basilica of St. Peter, decorated 1439–45. The Bridgeman Art Library
Africans themselves. The majority of Europeans had little knowledge of Africa or its inhabitants, and artists were no exception. This also had its positive side, because one reason why the surviving genuine likenesses of Africans are so fresh and interesting is that artists tended to pay more attention when painting a portrait of someone with unfamiliar features. The principal African countries that developed diplomatic relations with Europe in this period were two sub-Saharan, Christian ones—the Congo and Ethiopia—and two North African, Muslim ones: Tunisia and Morocco. Each of these countries developed particular links with specific European powers. The Christian countries had diplomatic ties to Portugal and the papacy, and the Muslim countries were involved in wars with the most powerful Christian rulers in Europe, such as the emperor Charles V. Religion and trade were the main motivations, with trade links sometimes cutting across religious ties. Images of African ambassadors not only personified a diplomatic link between Africa and Europe but also raised the profile of Africa in Europe, creating a durable and memorable record. Through them, a visual African presence was constructed in Europe. On occasion, a representation of an African embassy or delegation was included in one of a series of Renaissance narrative scenes. In 1441, delegates from Ethiopia headed by Pietro the Deacon attended the Council of Florence called by
Pope Eugenius IV,2 as did Andrea the Abbot, head of the Coptic delegation. But whereas the Copts signed an agreement of union with the Roman Catholic Church, the Ethiopians turned out to come from Jeruslaem, and to be unofficial. The visit to Italy of both groups is recorded by Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete, in a double panel on the bronze doors of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, completed in 1445 (fig. 43).3 Being represented on the doors of the most important church in Western Christendom was a significant honor, constituting an important act of inclusion. The first part of the panel records Eugenius IV consigning the decree of union to Abbot Andrea in Florence, and the second records the arrival of the delegates in Rome. In both scenes Abbot Andrea carried a substantial hand cross, one of the most outwardly distinctive features of Ethiopian as well as Coptic Christianity.4 This embassy was especially noteworthy because the visit of the Ethiopian delegates may have given impetus to European knowledge about Ethiopia.5 Another African delegation is represented by the sculptor Francesco Laurana, who included a scene of an embassy from the king of Tunis, composed of four individuals with turbans and beards, in one section of Alfonso I’s triumphal arch at the entrance to Castel Nuovo in Naples in the 1450s (fig. 44).6 Surviving visual representations of African ambassadors in Europe reach a peak at the turn of the sixteenth century. Domenico Tintoretto’s