Albert Eckhout (c.1610–1665) was a Dutch portrait and still life painter...
He was among the first European artists to paint scenes from the so called New World...
He was in the entourage of the Dutch governor-general of Brazil, Johan Maurits, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, who took him to Dutch Brazil to have him record the country's landscape, inhabitants, flora and fauna...
Eckhout focused on the people, plants and animals of the region when arriving in Dutch Brazil...
He painted eight life-size ethnographic representations of Brazil's inhabitants...
Albert Eckhout NEVER stepped foot in Africa ever in his life...
However, as usual, and unsurprisingly, Eurocentricks tell us that these two paintings are titled: “African Man” and “African Woman with Child”
The woman holds tropical Brazilian fruits, and wears European jewelry and carries a European pipe in her sash...
This image's emphasis on fecundity, and prosperity is reinforced by her cornucopia-like basket, which overflows with tropical fruit...
In classical antiquity, the cornucopia, also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment...
The landscape behind her is the port of Mauritstad (today's Recife)
The man holds a ceremonial European Cutlass sword that is decorated with a large pink shell...
Cutlasses are famous for being used by pirates...
The Cutlass was a common naval weapon during the early Age of Sail...
The Age of Sail (usually dated as 1571–1862) was a period roughly corresponding to the early modern period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships and gunpowder warfare, lasting from the mid-16th to the mid-19th centuries...
These paintings are two of 24 paintings given by Johan Maurits van Nassau Siegen to King Frederick III of Denmark in 1678...
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