Saturday 18 May 2024

One of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe?

 

Annibale Carracci Portrait of an African Woman  circa ca1560

From the Louvre Abu Dhabi Collection has the note :

Although fragmentary, this portrait is striking for the directness of the woman’s gaze. She is richly dressed in the style fashionable at the Medici court in the 1560s. This portrait is one of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe.

"one of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe." hmmm...

I'd welcome a chat with who ever wrote that to discuss:

1 What is the evidence of slavery in the image ? 
2 What pictures they compare it with to make this one of the first? 

I could/would challenge both.