Olivia
By the sixteenth century, Europeans were consumed with a curiosity about the foreign New World. Thus, artists accompanied the explorers, journeying to America with the intent of documenting the Native Americans and their lives. Yet these images and those derived from them, with a few noteworthy exceptions, are not shaped to represent reality. The Europeans were simultaneously drawn to and repulsed by the unique aspects of the Native Americans’ world. The variation of responses to the Americas inspired a range in artistic depictions of the natives. The concept of the “noble savage,” the perception of Indians as a brutal and barbaric force, and misjudgment of the multifaceted tribes as a single monolithic culture were translated into the works. Yet these divergent portrayals of the New World all shared the motif of European supremacy and dominance. The manipulation in renderings of the Indian way of life seared erroneous images into the minds of viewers and perpetuated stereotypes of Native Americans that continue into the present day.
In some ways glorifying an “unsophisticated native populace,” the notion of the “noble savage” tied the simplicity of Native American life to the purity of a utopia. Often depicted as nude or lightly garbed, the Native Americans in European paintings appeared humble in comparison to their conquerors. In a Christian society, such exposure symbolized a naïveté reminiscent of the innocence of Adam and Eve. Such nakedness is evident in Theodore Galle’s 1600 engraving of Vespucci Discovering America. The stark contrast between the defined masculinity of the Renaissance man and the gentle vulnerability of the Indian woman is sharply demarcated. The man’s hands grip markings of European dominance, the astrolabe and the cross, indicative of Europe’s thriving religious and scientific communities. Yet the woman is left empty-handed, her body curving to accentuate her nudity and vulnerability. Such pieces as Galle’s emphasize to European audiences the settlers’ dominance and authority, introducing the Native Americans as backwards people.
Some explorers saw danger rather than guilelessness in the assumed unsophistication of the Americas’ populace. This fear of alien practices inspired motifs steeped in adversity. Such images of the Native Americans were layered with symbolism of the Indians’ barbaric and violent nature. Perhaps most common were representations of roasting human limbs, feathered headdresses, and weapons. Although these insignias lacked validity in many cases, they spread as metaphoric representations of the Indians’ heathen ways. An anonymous woodcut from 1505, The People of the Islands Recently Discovered. . ., employs both such devices. The many Indians wear feathered headdresses, the men’s possession of bows and spears emphasizing an eagerness to engage in warfare. Simultaneously, the savagery of the campaigns is implied by the inclusion of cannibalism. Such images bore both horror and disgust in viewers, constructing a hostile stance towards the Native Americans.
Blind to the complexity of Native American cultures, Europeans amalgamated dissimilar tribes into a single Indian race. This confusion of heritages appeared in artwork via the artist’s flagrant disregard for Native American features. Artists either chose to ignore or lacked the skill to depict a new range of countenances. Rather than considering the individuality of each subject, painters chose to distinguish the Indians through particularities of their costume. Note the engraving, Vespucci Discovering America, referenced above. The study of the Indian woman reveals a facial structure and bodily appearance far more akin to a Botticelli maiden than a true Indian woman, but her nudity marks her as different. Similarly, in Jacques le Moyne’s Rene de Laudonniere and Chief Athore of the Timucua Indians at Ribaut’s Column, the Indians are painted with complexions and characteristics that mirror the French explorer’s but the beads and fringe of their traditional costume distinguishes their dissimilar heritage. In such a way, artists compressed the unique range of indigenous cultures into a single civilization of Indians, a term by which they are known today.
European desire to consume and understand the oddities of the New World motivated much of the artwork portraying Native Americans. But the depictions of early Indians are corrupted by distortions of the truth. Such an array of artwork acted not as a dissemination of New World culture but rather as an immortalizing force of Indian stereotypes.
Works Cited
Miller, Angela, et al. American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity. London: Prentice Hall, 2008. 23 – 32
Images Cited
“Ideology of Discovery.” Oneota. n.d. 9 September 2012.
< http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth200/amerigovespucci_text.html.>
“American Art History Weeks 1 – 3.” Studydroid.com. n.d. 10 September 2012.
< http://www.studydroid.com/printerFriendlyViewPack.php?packId=18997.>
Rene Goulaine De Laudonniere. AllPosters.com. n.d. 9 September 2012.
< http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Rene-Goulaine-De-Laudonniere-Posters_i7687384_.htm.>
By the sixteenth century, Europeans were consumed with a curiosity about the foreign New World. Thus, artists accompanied the explorers, journeying to America with the intent of documenting the Native Americans and their lives. Yet these images and those derived from them, with a few noteworthy exceptions, are not shaped to represent reality. The Europeans were simultaneously drawn to and repulsed by the unique aspects of the Native Americans’ world. The variation of responses to the Americas inspired a range in artistic depictions of the natives. The concept of the “noble savage,” the perception of Indians as a brutal and barbaric force, and misjudgment of the multifaceted tribes as a single monolithic culture were translated into the works. Yet these divergent portrayals of the New World all shared the motif of European supremacy and dominance. The manipulation in renderings of the Indian way of life seared erroneous images into the minds of viewers and perpetuated stereotypes of Native Americans that continue into the present day.
In some ways glorifying an “unsophisticated native populace,” the notion of the “noble savage” tied the simplicity of Native American life to the purity of a utopia. Often depicted as nude or lightly garbed, the Native Americans in European paintings appeared humble in comparison to their conquerors. In a Christian society, such exposure symbolized a naïveté reminiscent of the innocence of Adam and Eve. Such nakedness is evident in Theodore Galle’s 1600 engraving of Vespucci Discovering America. The stark contrast between the defined masculinity of the Renaissance man and the gentle vulnerability of the Indian woman is sharply demarcated. The man’s hands grip markings of European dominance, the astrolabe and the cross, indicative of Europe’s thriving religious and scientific communities. Yet the woman is left empty-handed, her body curving to accentuate her nudity and vulnerability. Such pieces as Galle’s emphasize to European audiences the settlers’ dominance and authority, introducing the Native Americans as backwards people.
Some explorers saw danger rather than guilelessness in the assumed unsophistication of the Americas’ populace. This fear of alien practices inspired motifs steeped in adversity. Such images of the Native Americans were layered with symbolism of the Indians’ barbaric and violent nature. Perhaps most common were representations of roasting human limbs, feathered headdresses, and weapons. Although these insignias lacked validity in many cases, they spread as metaphoric representations of the Indians’ heathen ways. An anonymous woodcut from 1505, The People of the Islands Recently Discovered. . ., employs both such devices. The many Indians wear feathered headdresses, the men’s possession of bows and spears emphasizing an eagerness to engage in warfare. Simultaneously, the savagery of the campaigns is implied by the inclusion of cannibalism. Such images bore both horror and disgust in viewers, constructing a hostile stance towards the Native Americans.
Blind to the complexity of Native American cultures, Europeans amalgamated dissimilar tribes into a single Indian race. This confusion of heritages appeared in artwork via the artist’s flagrant disregard for Native American features. Artists either chose to ignore or lacked the skill to depict a new range of countenances. Rather than considering the individuality of each subject, painters chose to distinguish the Indians through particularities of their costume. Note the engraving, Vespucci Discovering America, referenced above. The study of the Indian woman reveals a facial structure and bodily appearance far more akin to a Botticelli maiden than a true Indian woman, but her nudity marks her as different. Similarly, in Jacques le Moyne’s Rene de Laudonniere and Chief Athore of the Timucua Indians at Ribaut’s Column, the Indians are painted with complexions and characteristics that mirror the French explorer’s but the beads and fringe of their traditional costume distinguishes their dissimilar heritage. In such a way, artists compressed the unique range of indigenous cultures into a single civilization of Indians, a term by which they are known today.
European desire to consume and understand the oddities of the New World motivated much of the artwork portraying Native Americans. But the depictions of early Indians are corrupted by distortions of the truth. Such an array of artwork acted not as a dissemination of New World culture but rather as an immortalizing force of Indian stereotypes.
Works Cited
Miller, Angela, et al. American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity. London: Prentice Hall, 2008. 23 – 32
Images Cited
“Ideology of Discovery.” Oneota. n.d. 9 September 2012.
< http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth200/amerigovespucci_text.html.>
“American Art History Weeks 1 – 3.” Studydroid.com. n.d. 10 September 2012.
< http://www.studydroid.com/printerFriendlyViewPack.php?packId=18997.>
Rene Goulaine De Laudonniere. AllPosters.com. n.d. 9 September 2012.
< http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Rene-Goulaine-De-Laudonniere-Posters_i7687384_.htm.>