Studies of Men in Turbans

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

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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Subjects