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| Detail from a 16th-century Lisbon painting: A scene from the busy square around the royal fountain (Chafariz d’El Rei). |
A remarkable 16th-century painting of Lisbon’s royal fountain offers a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in Renaissance Portugal. The artwork, often attributed to a Netherlandish painter, shows a lively public square near the harbor of Lisbon.
The scene contains more than 150 figures and a wide range of animals, including horses, birds, fish and even exotic creatures. Merchants, sailors, travelers and residents gather around the fountain, illustrating the diversity of the Portuguese capital during this period.
Art historians have noted that the painting also includes members of different cultural and religious communities who lived in Lisbon at the time. Among the figures are individuals believed to represent Jewish residents as well as people of African origin. Their presence reflects Lisbon’s importance as a major port city connected to trade networks stretching across Europe, Africa and the Atlantic world.
Curators studying the painting have highlighted how such works provide valuable insight into the multicultural character of Renaissance cities. Lisbon in particular was known for its mixture of languages, religions and cultural backgrounds due to its role in maritime exploration and international trade.
Below is the complete view of the painting commonly known as Chafariz d’el Rey in the Alfama District (View of a Square with the King’s Fountain in Lisbon), created around 1570–1580. The detail shown above appears on the left side of the full image.
Slavery in Portugal
During the Renaissance period Portugal was closely connected to the early Atlantic trade networks. Historical records show that people of African origin lived in Lisbon in a variety of circumstances and social positions.
While many Africans were brought to Europe through systems of enslavement, some later gained freedom and became part of urban society. Documents from the 15th and 16th centuries indicate that freed individuals sometimes worked as craftsmen, sailors, merchants, teachers or servants within Portuguese cities.
Lisbon had one of the most diverse populations in Europe at the time. People from different regions and cultures interacted in marketplaces, harbors and public squares. This diversity is reflected in the painting of the King’s Fountain, where individuals from different backgrounds appear together in a shared public space.
For historians and art scholars, works like this painting help illustrate the complex social reality of Renaissance Europe and the connections created through trade, migration and exploration.
Related
- Contested Legacies Portugal – The Early Atlantic Slave Trade in Portugal: A Digital Archive
- Medieval Painting Hints at Ties Between Blacks and Jews
- Walters Art Museum Exhibition Reveals the African Presence in Renaissance Europe
The following video provides additional historical context about the early Atlantic slave trade and its impact on Portuguese society.
The latter figure and several other Africans explain the painting’s appearance in the exhibit “Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe,”
which is at the Walters through January 21. It subsequently travels to
the Princeton University Art Museum, where it will be shown from
February 16 to June 9. Read full story at Jewish Daily Forward
The vast majority of Jews in Spain and Portugal WERE BLACK!! They were not slaves as this post attempts to paint them. Are we assuming that because some males in the painting had big noses that they were Jews? If so they were Ashkenazim who were written to be in the Iberian Peninsual during the 10th century (coming from the Khazarian converts). How do we know that this is a painting from the 16th century, when there's no known information on WHO painted it? Based on what I know of the history of Portugal in the middle ages before slavery because of what I have read in history books, it is revisionism to try to present a picture where Jew=white and black=slave or Muslim. Totally false!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, for the record I've added the source of the information. As for the age of the painting, I believe it's from a Flemish painter and these kind of street images were typical for Flemish painters in a certain time, according to what I've read about it. As for the slavery part, perhaps you're right: history is subjective.
DeleteAnonymous is absolutely correct. If you actually read the books about this era you will find that the "black" people being hauled away were in fact jews being banished first from spain, then portugal and their children taken to the west coast of Africa to be enslaved.
DeleteTHE JEWS WHO WERE BANISHED TO SAO TOME AND SENEGAMBIA WERE WHITE MEN WHO TOOK BLACK AFRICAN WOMEN FROM ANGOLA AND CREATED A MULATTO CLASS CALLED LANCADOS. THERE ARE VARIOUS SOURCES THAT DOCUMENTS THESE COMMUNITIES IN WEST AFRICA ONE WOUD BE JEAN BARBOT: DESCRIPTION OF THE GUINEA COAST PG 408.
DeleteThat`s the biggest whitewashed lies of Eurocentrism. The black people in the paintings are not slaves they are Jews and Moors who ruled and built Al-Andalus today known as Portugal and Spain. Al-Andalus was a Moorish Empire lasting almost 1000 years which brought Europe out of the dark ages. The exploration of the Americas and advent of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade started right after the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition and Expulsion of the Jews and Moors. The Jews stayed longer than the Moors as the Moors were mostly muslim black Africas and Arabs. They were hated by the Spanish and Portuguese. This is the main res
DeleteYou can tell they are Jews because,as the original article states, they were required to wear "flat berets and yellow circles affixed to their clothes, per Charles V’s ruling...". Thanks for an interesting post. Make sure to use quotes when you quote text directly or cite when you paraphrase.
ReplyDeleteYOU GOT IT RIGHT, THE ONES TRYING TO DISPUTE THE COLOR OF THE JEWS HERE ARE JUST HEBREW ISRAELITES
DeleteGreetings, please note the following corrections to the article above. The Jew depicted in the painting was the dark brown gentlemen being arrested. Its impossible for the other two gentlemen to be Jews due to the Portuguese expulsion edict and inquisition. Basically Portuguese government banished all Jews from their country in 1492. Jews were hated in Portugal. Any Jews remaining in Portugal after the deadline were arrested, enslaved, possessions confiscated, and deported to Africa. Please read the following excerpt from Wikipedia. There are several books available on Portuguese Jewish persecution. Please read whenever you have time. Thanks.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Portugal
"In 1492, Spain expelled its Jewish population as part of the Spanish Inquisition. Tens of thousands of Spanish Jews subsequently fled to Portugal, where King John II granted them asylum in return for payment. However, the asylum was only temporary—after eight months, the Portuguese government decreed the enslavement of all Jews who had not yet left the country. In 1493, King John deported several hundred Jewish children to the newly discovered colony of São Tomé, where many of them perished."
You knock it out the park. I mean what you stated and how you stated is irrefutable! Excellent job.
Deleteyou are extremely misled, you have no proof the black man being arrested was a jew, it has been documented that jews were required to wear badges to distinguish them from Christians, blacks need no badge because their skin is enough.Clearly the yellow badge wearing jews are not black. This very painting is dated AFTER the expulsion of the jews, not all were expelled because many stayed and became crypto jews posing as Christians. Also the 1506 massacre in lisbon proved jews were still there. The jews who went to africa mixed with local africans creating a mulatto class, please stop this hebrew israelite trash.
DeleteThe difference between European Slavery and American Slavery is that Slavery was imported into North America by the Royal African Trade Company. The British Empire was running the show and history has been rewritten. Centuries of history have been erased, such as the Royal East Indian Trade companies drug trafficking and wars in China and India. Perhaps because the oligarchs were the original human and drug trafficking gangsters, or perhaps because they are running the show.
ReplyDeleteThe brown man is the jew. Have a look at the hats, this gives it away. red hats were christian and the white is Jew. this fella probabbly had his inquisition. The painting was done for a reason and to be read from left to right. loads hidden here.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct! The Portuguese Jews literally went by the last name Negro! They were black! N this painting is actually of a specific day & scene that happened at the port of Lisbon....on this day the King of Portugal enforces his law that all of the Black Moors & Black Jews concert to Christianity or leave by force...and this artist is a painting of that exact scenery! It was recorded that the Black Hews children under 14 was taken from them n converted to Christianity...n the parents were beaten wit clubs! This article is disappointing! It bears false witness that promotes white supremacy...
ReplyDeleteI am amazed that no one ever draws attention to what's happening in the very center of the painting - a person being burned!!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed that no one ever draws attention to what's happening in the very center of the painting - a person being burned!!
ReplyDelete