Einwohner des Landes Biledulgerit oder Numidien (Inhabitants of the Land of Biledulgerid or Numidia), from Thesaurus Exoticorum: oder, Eine mit Außländischen Raritäten und Geschichten wohlversehene Schatz-Kammer (Exotic Thesaurus or A Treasury filled with Foreign Rarities and Stories)
Eberhard Werner Happel, 1647 - 1690
1688
Woodcut on paper
Impression: 7 7/8 × 5 1/4 in. (20 × 13.3 cm)
Sheet: 8 7/8 × 6 1/4 in. (22.5 × 15.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
PR.913.3.1
Geography
Place Made: Germany, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, upper right to left: Einwohner des Landes Biledulgerit oder Numidien
Label
Two men converse against a backdrop of distant mountains. Donning turbans, they stand as enigmatic figures, in the land of Biledulgerid or Numidia, presentday Algeria. This woodcut reflects how non-European individuals were represented in seventeenth-century Europe, as encounters with those from different cultures and races were often approached with curiosity and suspicion, shaped by both real experiences and preconceived notions. In this book illustration, Happel records the men like specimens, an early practice of ethnography.
Written by Alene Jin, ’25
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
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
Source unknown; catalogued, 1913.
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