Knowing my interest in the Black Magus my great niece sent me this picture from Milan via WhatsApp couldn't help but comment on it...
Adoration of the Magi
Gaudenzio Ferrari
Valduggia, Vercelli 1475 circa-Milano 1546
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
A quintessential sixteenth-century Adoration of the Magi, this work includes a Black king, but he is markedly separated from the other two white kings—in this case, he is placed on an entirely separate panel. While all eyes are directed towards the Christ Child, only the Black king looks away, creating the impression that he is present within the scene yet somehow set apart, suggesting an element of “not one of us.”
His position within the composition reinforces this sense of difference. He is dressed as a fashionable young man, wearing the shorter, more contemporary robe, in contrast to the other kings. At the same time, both the Black king and his Black entourage are depicted with emphatically African features—strong, almost caricatured in their exaggeration. Note, too, the striking similarity between the face of the Black groom and that of his horse, a visual device that further underscores the racialised representation.
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