This painting from c. 1525-1530 is one of the earliest portraits of a Black man.
The portrait was painted by Jan Mostaert, a well-known Dutch Renaissance painter.
The man depicted here is most likely a man that appears in the records as Christophe the Moor. He was part of Charles V’s court, one of his bodyguards it seems, and this would explain that this man appears to be a man of power.
The Rijksmuseum entry only says this (translation mine):
African man in European dress. Standing, half-length, facing three-quarters to the left against a blue-green background. He wears a red beret on which is a pilgrim’s insignia of Our Lady of Halle, near Brussels. The man has a mustache and a beard, which ends in two points. He wears a white shirt without collar over which is a red doublet and a short black cloak and white, goat-leather gloves. With his right hand he holds the richly carved hilt of his sword. His left hand in his side. On his left hip a richly embroidered bag.
Christophe first appears in court records as a stable boy in the employ of Charles V’s father, Philip the Handsome. In later years, he appears as an archer for Charles V, even accompanying him on his trip to Aachen where Charles V crowns himself Emperor.
There aren’t many more details of the life of Christophe or of his origins. He is mentioned as a Moor and so came via Spain possibly via Joanna of Castile, the wife of Philip the Handsome.
Image credit: Wikimedia/Public Domain
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