The Graphic Sources for the "Moor with the Emerald Cluster"

Abstract

eye-catching pieces, even that dazzling array (Figures 1, 2).1 The Moor is represented as a muscular youth swaggering stride; he is carved from pearwood, and lacquered a deep brown. His broadly smiling face with its wide, blunt nose and full lips is clearly meant to be that of a Negro; but his curly hair is-when seen from the front-almost entirely hidden by a jeweled gold feather crown of a type generally associated with romantic images of American Indians. The Moor's dark brown skin is covered on arms, legs, and body with intricate tattoos, meticulously produced by thousands of tiny dots of blue-black lacquer paint. In splendid contrast to this dark background stands forth the lavish assortment of gem-studded jewelry: necklace, pectoral, armlets, knee bands, cuffs, and greaves, and a belt heavily loaded with pendants to form a fringed skirt.2 The Moor carries a tray of tortoiseshell,3 containing a matrix of emeralds. This was presented to Elector Augustus (1553-86), the founder of the Dresden Kunstkammer (1560), by his friend Emperor Rudolf II 1581, when Augustus paid him a visit Prague, soon after Rudolf's recovery from a serious illness. The emeralds were kept in a black box lined with crimson velvet, and were catalogued under the section Precious Stones, Unicorn and Rhinoceros Horns. They were said to have come from the Indies of the West-probably Muzo Colombia-and had presumably been sent to Europe by some Spanish conquistador.4 Elector Augustus treasured them so highly that he decreed that in memory eternally they should remain with his house inalienably.5 The Moor with the Emerald Cluster must have been