Hoofden van een Afrikaanse man, een Turkse man en van een vrouw op rug gezien 1620 - 1657

Stefano della Bella created this print of three heads with etching techniques sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. It’s a fascinating study of racialized ‘types’ from a European perspective. Della Bella was an Italian artist, working at a time when Europe's relationship with the rest of the world was changing due to exploration and commerce. The print presents an African man, a Turkish man, and a European woman as objects of study, examples of human diversity. What’s interesting is that the image is not simply a neutral record. It reflects the power dynamics of the time, in which Europeans were increasingly defining themselves in relation to those they saw as ‘other.’ How are the figures styled? What associations did Turkish or African dress have at the time? Exploring sources from the period – travel writing, trade records, costume books – can help us better understand this. This gives us a better understanding of the image's cultural context.