ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings and More

Moderator:

Michael Gomez (New York University)

“While most of us arrived here from elsewhere by way of plane there is another body of Black Folk trying to get into Italy by way of rickety boats and unseaworthy vessels – thousands of whom have lost their lives”.

With these words Professor Michael Gomez opened the first
panel of presentations at the Black Portraiture{s} II conference as its moderator. In recognizing the plight of the tens of thousands of African migrants and refugees who are trying to enter Italy by crossing the Mediterranean Sea

Professor Gomez brings

into clear focus the longstanding issue of African migration in the relationship between Italy and Africa.  The recent and massive increase in this migration has brought this issue to the forefront of the discussion of legality, morality, and modernity.

Professor Michael Gomez, –  History Department
at NYU, has produced a highly regarded body of work on Africa and the African Diaspora including, “African Dominion” a two volume work on early and medieval West Africa. Gomez has published “Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu”, “Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South”, “Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora”, “Diaspora Africa: A Reader”, and “Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas”.

“Resignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana
Readings and More”

Blackamoors and More: Blackamoor Statuary at NYU’s Villa La Pietra.

The Blackamoors are the highly stylized, decorative,

wood carvings of richly attired and bejeweled African men and women dressed as servants that seem to be ubiquitous in  Italy today. These wooden statues were made to represent the African people  who appeared in wealthy households of the rich and powerful in Renaissance Europe during the 15th century.  The Blackamoor statues may have first been ‘mass produced’ among the high end wood furniture carvings in the 18^th century studios of Andre Brustolon in Venice, Italy. Sculptured chiefly from ebony and boxwood, these centuries old relics of a bygone era still survive among the objects d’art of wealthy homeowners throughout the world today. Blackamoors are made today in wood as well as glass and ceramics. They are often encrusted with precious stones and cased in gold or silver and sold in jewelry stores.

Robert Holmes started his presentation on this topic with this provocative request.

“Will all the Blackamoors in the audience raise your hands?  Not too many hands were raised. Why is that?”

In answer to his own provocation he related the following story. “I’ve been traveling in Europe for over 50 years. I’ve

been visiting the Villa La Pietra since 2001. From time to time

I’ve seen Blackamoor statues in museum shops and hotel lobbys .. but never so many as I saw at Villa La Pietra.  In 2004 I happened to be seated next to Ellyn Toscano (the Executive Director) at the Villa. We had a conversation about

the Blackamoors. We knew about the name moors as a people who swept into Spain in the 8th century…but were expelled in the 15th century.”  During the conversation  Holmes and Toscano agreed that they had “never heard of the name being racialized  during the occupation by the moors. “Never a mention of Whiteamoors”.  Bob conjectured that Blackamoors is a “name invented to create a distinction between ourselves and those people who invaded Spain.

Holmes suggested that a way to further the conversation
and make the conversation more widely visible would be perhaps, to stage an exhibition in which the Blackamoors at the Villa were “juxtaposed with contemporary art pieces in a museum setting”.  At that point Professor Awam Ampka, in a conversation with Ellyn Toscano heard of Bob Holmes’  Idea. Professor Ampka spoke to Professor Deborah Willis who had recently completed the very successful Black Portraitures I

conference in Paris, France in 2013 and had not yet formulated a program for a second Black Portraitures conference. The moment could not have been more propitious!

Bob Holmes agreed to finance a mini planning session to be hosted by Ellyn Toscano at Villa La Pietra in the spring of 2014 to  include Professors Deborah Willis and Awam Ampka along with a select  group of artists and scholars, to plan an art exhibition that would highlight the Blackamoor collection at Villa La Pietra and be included as part of the Black Portraitures II conference. Professor Awam Ampka has curated the

Resignifications Exhibition. It has opened coincident with the opening of the Black Portraitures II Conference and now extends to three venues in Florence, Italy.  The exhibition has received extensive media coverage and very positive critical review in Europe and in North America including the United States and Canada.

Robert Earnest Holmes earned a BA from Washington Square College and a JD from NYU School of Law. He practiced law in the entertainment department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison. He received NYU’s

Alumni Achievement Award in 1998 and Washington Square College’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1992. He is past President of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association and is an original co-founder of the Black American Law Students Association. Holmes has served on the boards of the Constitutional Rights Foundation and the Liberace Foundation in Las Vegas.

 

 

The portrait by Johann Zoffany commissioned in 1779 by Lord Mansfield that resurrected the story of “Belle”.

-BELLE –

The Motion Picture

I saw the motion picture “Belle” when it opened in New York City in May 2014 to approving audiences and strong ‘word of mouth’ acclaim. The beautifully written screenplay by Missan Sagay is  based on a true story.  As told by Ms Sagay she discovered the story under very unlikely circumstances as she took a walk through a nearby palace during a break from her medical studies at St. Andrews University more than a decade ago. During her walk along one corridor in the palace she came upon a room where a large portrait of two women hung on a wall. The way the two women seemed to relate to each other in the painting caught her attention and remained in her mind’s eye for years afterwards. After the completion of her medical degree and a few years of work as a practicing physician and screenplay writer, Ms Sagay decided to revisit and research the portrait that had caught her attention years earlier during that walk in the Scone Palace in Scotland. This research led to the discovery of  the story of Dido Elizabeth Bell the daughter of a woman, Maria Belle,  who had died over 250 years ago in a British colony deep in the American South*.

 

Maria Belle, a beautiful enslaved African woman, was found in the ‘hold’ of a captured Spanish ship during a naval battle between warships of the Spanish and British governments off the coast of 18^th century Cuba.  Maria Belle had been rescued from the Spanish warship by Sir John Lindsay, an officer in the British Royal Navy and captain of the 28 gun British warship HMS Trent. Marie and Sir John Lindsay fell in love after her rescue from the Spanish and apparently lived together near Mobile, Alabama where Sir John was stationed after the end of the war with Spain. They had a child, the eponymous Dido Elizabeth “Belle”.

The film opens when Sir John Lindsay, having been recalled from his post in Alabama and ordered to report for duty elsewhere in the British Empire, arrives in London to leave his young (perhaps five years old) daughter with his Great Uncle Lord John Mansfield to be brought up and raised with Lord Mansfield’s  family in England.

 The film depicts a period in the lives of Lord Mansfield and his family as they lived in a small town near London toward the end of the 18^th century. Lord Mansfield, his wife, and daughter were people of some ‘means’ who led lives of historical significance but who are perhaps better known now than they were during their lifetimes. Their story though, and the peculiar circumstances of their lives, holds some special relevance in today’s world. The lead character, Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed race child, is unceremoniously delivered to her grand uncle to be reared while her father goes off to war. The grand uncle, Lord Mansfield, perhaps the most powerful man in the British Empire during the latter half of the 18^th century, is also Lord Chief Justice of England. Mortified at first, Lord Mansfield hesitatingly takes the young girl into his home and raises her as his daughter. During this same time period one of the most important legal cases in the history of the Empire is presented to Lord Mansfield for a decision. The case involves and eventually leads to the abolishment of the slave trade in the British Empire. Thus the stage is set for a wonderful love story against a backdrop of great historical significance centered around the most powerful man in the British Empire during the latter half of the 18^th century.

THE DIRECTOR

The film is directed masterfully by the much acclaimed British director Amma Assante. Ms Assante was brought in by producer Damian Jones to direct “Belle” after her directorial debut with the film “A Way of Life” won awards in England and the United States. Ms. Amma Asante began her career as a child actor, became a screen play writer, and has now developed into one of the most promising new film directors in the motion picture business.

The London Film Festival awarded Asante the inaugural Alfred Dunhill UK Film Talent Award, created to recognize the achievements of a new or emerging British writer/director who has shown great skill and imagination in bringing originality and verve to film-making.