Title: Portrait of an African Man
Description: The Portrait of an African Man (Dutch: Portret van een Afrikaanse man) also known as Portrait of a Moor (Dutch: Portret van een Moor) is a painting by the Netherlandish Renaissance painter Jan Mostaert. Mostaert made the painting between c. 1520 and 1530. The exact subject of the painting has long been unclear, although numerous ideas have been put forward, including that the depicted figure is a soldier, a nobleman or Saint Maurice. The portrait is significant in that it may portray the earliest portrait of a specific black man in European painting, though Saint Maurice, and Balthazar of the Three Kings or Biblical Magi, had long been usually portrayed as black.
Author(s): Jan Mostaert