Studies of Men in Turbans
Unknown Spanish, Spanish
17th century
Graphite on laid paper
Overall: 9 × 12 3/4 in. (22.9 × 32.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe, Class of 1964H, through Friends of the Dartmouth Library
D.962.88.27
Geography
Place Made: Spain, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Drawing
Research Area
Drawing
Not on view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, in graphite, lower left: Vizente Garcerano / [illegible] en la academia
Label
The intense gazes of the four turbaned figures stare out from this incomplete sketch. This depiction belonged to a larger collection of around 300 drawings from the Spanish artist Bartolomé Estebán Murillo’s Seville drawing academy. Inscribed in graphite is the name Vizente Garcerano, who may be the artist. The turbaned figures watching the crucifixion of Jesus Christ call to mindsimilar depictions of figures in both stereotypical and invented non-European dress. Their status as bystanders to this event may implicate these men in the crime of Christ’s death. Often, exoticized clothing was used to “other” individuals in European art. Their depiction as non-European and their association with the Crucifixion may be an attempt to position non-European societies as morally inferior.
Written by Jess Karson, ’23
From the 2023 exhibition Faith and Empire: The Legacy of Conversion and Commerce in the Early Modern World, curated by students of ARTH 20.04, "Faith and Empire: Art in the Early Modern World" taught by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
ARTH 28.01, The Global Renaissance, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Fall 2021
Spanish 63.12, Got Las Meninas? Spanish Visual Culture and Baroque Imaginaries, Noelia Cirnigliaro, Winter 2023
Art History 20.04, Faith and Empire, Beth Mattison, Spring 2023
Art History 28.01, The Global Renaissance, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Spring 2024
Exhibition History
Faith and Empire: The Legacy of Conversion and Commerce in the Early Modern World, Class of 1967 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 12-December 23, 2023.
Provenance
Collection of Tancred Borenius (1885-1948), London,19330s-1940s, sold at Parke-Bernet, New York, 1952; sold to Julius H. Weitzner (1896-1986), New York art dealer, date unknown; sold to Evelyn Annenberg Friede Jaffe Hall (1911-2005) and William B. Jaffe (1904-1972), New York, October 1962; given to present collection, 1962.
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