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th e li ves o f afri can s laves an d people of afri can descent i n renai ssance eu ro pe
fig. 5 Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), Portrait Study of a Black Man, 1508? Charcoal on paper. Albertina, Vienna (A. Dürer inv. 3122)
year, her name, and her age—twenty years old—on the drawing, so these are not in doubt. Katharina’s infinitely faraway expression, her downcast eyes, and her hair covering are movingly captured by Dürer. The artist also drew a second black African, a man, at around the same date (fig. 5). Although the date “1508” appears on the drawing, alongside Dürer’s monogram, the date is not considered secure. Nothing is known of this man, and it could be that he is the Diener or servant of the same João Brandão whom Dürer writes he drew after 14 December 1520. With a moustache and beard in addition to close, curly hair, this African
is less likely to have been a slave than Katherina, as beards were usually forbidden to slaves, and his expression is less obviously despairing. The position of the African in a scene visà-vis other humans can also suggest inferiority, as in the case with the young black children who were so prized at European courts, and who were sometimes painted alongside their owners or masters/mistresses, as in Titian’s portrait of Laura dei Dianti of ca. 1523 (fig. 6)11 and Cristóvão de Morais’s portrait of Juana of Austria of 1555 (fig. 7).12 The black boy and girl are considerably smaller than their mistresses, as they are