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Description: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume I: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of...
The decision in 1960 to launch a systematic investigation of the iconography of blacks in Occidental art did not proceed from any clear plan. It was an impulse prompted by an intolerable situation: segregation as it still existed in spite of having been outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1954.
PublisherHarvard University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00137.010
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Acknowledgments and Perspectives to the First Edition
DOMINIQUE DE MENIL
The decision in 1960 to launch a systematic investigation of the iconography of blacks in Occidental art did not proceed from any clear plan. It was an impulse prompted by an intolerable situation: segregation as it still existed in spite of having been outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1954.
Many works of art contradicted segregation. A sketch by a master could reveal a depth of humanity beyond any social condition, race, or color. So why not assemble these artworks in an exhibition or a book?
With such a naive approach, a serious enterprise was started. It brought to light a wealth of artistic treasures and uncovered the breadth and complexity of problems which had their roots in history, in myths, in the collective unconscious.
It took fifteen years to bring the project to completion, and it took the exceptional gifts of a young art historian totally dedicated to the task. We salute here the emergence of Ladislas Bugner.
It also took the cooperation of eminent scholars who gave the project the benefit of their personal research. The contributions of Jean Vercoutter, Jean Leclant, Frank M. Snowden, Jr., Jehan Desanges, Jean Courtès, Jean Dévissé, Michel Mollat, Jacques Thuillier, Jacques de Caso, and John McCoubrey are gratefully acknowledged here.
The advice and encouragement of Jean Devisse, in the early days, and his unfailing interest in the project have been crucial. The collaboration with Frank Snowden was invaluable. His research in Greek and Roman antiquity antedated our own: for twenty years he had investigated the museums of Europe and America, gathering references to blacks in the classical period. Blacks in Antiquity; published in 1970, presents the sum of his work.
Exceptional credit goes to Monique Bugner, who assumed heavy responsibilities. Her background in art history, her stamina, and her devotion to the work overcame all difficulties. Deep thanks go to her and to the other collaborators, Marie-Dominique Perlat-Daudel and Anne Poidevin in Paris, Karen Coffey and Géraldine Edwards in Houston; also to Virginia Camfield, who was the correspondent in Houston during the initial phase of the project. Let us also mention here the students and researchers who, with great patience, have surveyed the photo archives, libraries, museums, and churches: Anne-Françoise Bonnardel in Paris, Paola Dettori in Rome, Sérgio Guimarães de Andrade in Lisbon, and Gude Suckale-Redlefsen in Munich.
Jean Malaquais’s vision and encouragement were a stimulating factor. He agreed to translate into French the texts of Frank Snowden and John McCoubrey, bringing to the work the prestige of his talent. The translations into English were masterfully done by W. Granger Ryan. We express here deep gratitude to both translators, and to Laura Furman, who edited the English text and checked all the references.
We cannot thank individually here the many scholars who became interested in the work and helped it in one way or another, yet we must mention Bernard V. Bothmer, Herbert Hoffmann, Jean Mallon, and Charles Sterling for their trust and their friendly support.
We wish to thank also the directors and curators of the museums and libraries who have generously opened their files to us. We are particularly grateful to the curators who consented to let our photographers work in their departments.
The large photographic program executed in Egypt and in the Sudan was made possible by Gamel Mokhtar and Negm ed Din Mohammed Sharif. We are most grateful for their kind interest and their efficient help.
Finally, let us recognize the superb achievements of the photographers, Mario Carrieri, Blaine Hickey, and Ogden Robertson, artists in their own right. The photographic campaigns were skillfully organized by Francesco Orefici.
Such a large effort and such an abundance of collected material bring sobering reflection.
Undeniably, we are confronted with a gallery of blacks. A great variety of people: some plain, some beautiful, some even quivering with life. Yet all have been cast in roles they did not choose. They are actors in plays written by whites. Though whites are invisible, their presence is felt everywhere. It is their customs, their tastes, their prejudices, their phantasms, and their romanticism that have been captured in these images.
These voiceless blacks, these ghosts, have carried nevertheless one of the longings of mankind. They were a symbol of universality and of the equality of men before God. On twelfth-century enamels the apostles address themselves to a white man and a black man who signify humanity in all its variety. Pale skins have no monopoly on the earth.
When Orient and Occident were swept by the high winds of Christianity and Islam, ideals of fraternity blossomed. There was a time when the West adopted a black knight as its patron saint, a time when artists did not neglect to include an African among the resurrected, a time when a white King Solomon embraced a black Queen of Sheba. Reality might have followed in the footsteps of dream: it was in the arms of the pope that the first ambassador of the Congo died. His bust is still in Santa Maria Maggiore. But the dream of an authentic cooperation between Europe and Africa, of a sharing of ideals and knowledge, was shattered by crimes so atrocious that they left no images.
The past is heavy. To face it, to assume it, facts must be brought candidly to light. The making of a more human world requires rigorous studies. It is the hope of the Menil Foundation to work toward this goal.
Acknowledgments and Perspectives to the First Edition
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