It’s Black History Month! Black People in European History #14

It's Black History Month! Every day I will post something that shows the deep and rich history of Black people in Europe, so no one ever again questions why Black actors should be cast in all the films, plays, and shows about European history or based on fictionalized European history like Lord of the Rings and The Witcher.

February 14: This Antwerp woman. Speaking of Jacob Jordaens (see Feb 13), he painted this around 1645, which he titled "Moses and His Wife." For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story of Moses, it’s unclear whether Moses' Cushite (Ethiopian) wife is Zipporah, his first wife, who’s from Midian (now in Saudi Arabia) or a second wife. Regardless, Moses' sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, disapprove of the Cushite wife, and God punishes them for it. All we know about this painting is that Jordaens painted it off his own bat, not for a patron. The woman who sat for this painting (or the study it’s based on) will never be known. I wonder what she thought of being cast as Moses' wife. In a place and time where many wealthy patrons of the arts were wealthy due to the African slave trade, a painting of a Black woman for whom God punishes people just because they badmouthed her was definitely a statement. And look how he paints her! She’s wearing a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings, and an African sun hat painted at an angle that gives the appearance of a holy nimbus. Like yesterday’s Rubens model, the woman who sat for this painting was surely a worker, artisan, or servant living in Antwerp. Cast Black actors!