Carmen Fracchia

'Black but Human' is the first study to focus on the visual representations of African slaves and ex-slaves in Spain during the Hapsburg dynasty. The Afro-Hispanic proverb 'Black but Human' is the main thread of the six chapters and serves as a lens through which to explore the ways in which a certain visual representation of slavery both embodies and reproduces hegemonic visions of enslaved and liberated Africans, and at the same time provides material for critical and emancipatory practices by Afro-Hispanics themselves. The African presence in the Iberian Peninsula between the late fifteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century was as a result of the institutionalization of the local and transatlantic slave trades. In addition to the Moors, Berbers and Turks born as slaves, there were approximately two million enslaved people in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragón and Portugal. The 'Black but Human' topos that emerges from the African work songs and poems written by Afro-Hispanics encodes the multi-layered processes through which a black emancipatory subject emerges and a 'black nation' forges a collective resistance. It is visually articulated by Afro-Hispanic and Spanish artists in religious paintings and in the genres of self-portraiture and portraiture. This extraordinary imagery coexists with the stereotypical representations of African slaves and ex-slaves by Spanish sculptors, engravers, jewellers, and painters mainly in the religious visual form and by European draftsmen and miniaturists, in their landscape drawings and sketches for costume books.

Slavery and Visual Arts in Hapsburg Spain, 1480-1700

'Black but Human'

'Black but Human' is the first study to focus on the visual representations of African slaves and ex-slaves in Spain during the Hapsburg dynasty. The Afro-Hispanic proverb 'Black but Human' is the main thread of the six chapters and serves as a lens through which to explore the ways in which a certain visual representation of slavery both embodies and reproduces hegemonic visions of enslaved and liberated Africans, and at the same time provides material for critical and emancipatory practices by Afro-Hispanics themselves. The African presence in the Iberian Peninsula between the late fifteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century was as a result of the institutionalization of the local and transatlantic slave trades. In addition to the Moors, Berbers and Turks born as slaves, there were approximately two million enslaved people in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal. The 'Black but Human' topos that emerges from the African work songs and poems written by Afro-Hispanics encodes the multi-layered processes through which a black emancipatory subject emerges and a 'black nation' forges a collective resistance. It is visually articulated by Afro-Hispanic and Spanish artists in religious paintings and in the genres of self-portraiture and portraiture. This extraordinary imagery coexists with the stereotypical representations of African slaves and ex-slaves by Spanish sculptors, engravers, jewellers, and painters mainly in the religious visual form and by European draftsmen and miniaturists, in their landscape drawings and sketches for costume books.

'Black But Human'

Catrien Santing

Jan L. de Jong

Kees Zimmerman

The Miracle of the Transplantation of the Black Leg, a posthumous miracle performed by the saints Cosmas and Damian, is best known from the Golden Legend of Jacobus the Voragine (1265). From the early Middle Ages on, artists have been particularly inspired by De Voragine's description of this miracle. Their works can be found in churches, monasteries, and musea, mainly in Italy, Spain, and Southern France. These artful representations have fascinated Kees Zimmerman, retired trauma surgeon, inspiring him to travel through Southern Europe exploring them. In this way he has gathered an impressive collection of photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art and religious objects. This book offers over 80 reproductions of representations of the Miracle of the Black Leg, quite a number of which have never been published before. Articles by art historians (De Jong, Fracchia), medievalists (Santing), and an Introduction by Zimmerman himself, shed light on different aspects of the legend. This book will therefore be of interest for art historians and medievalists, as well as those who wish to investigate the relationship between medicine and religion in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. It offers, moreover, a wealth of beautiful pictures to be savored by all art lovers.

Carmen Fracchia

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