“Black Man with Parrots and Monkeys” by David Klöcker von Ehrenstrahl (c. 1670)

“Black Man with Parrots and Monkeys” by David Klöcker von Ehrenstrahl (c. 1670)

“Black Man with Parrots and Monkeys” by David Klöcker von Ehrenstrahl (c. 1670)

David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628–1698) was the court painter of King Charles XI of Sweden…

After Charles X Gustav’s death in 1660, Ehrenstrahl continued in his position, serving King Charles XI throughout his reign (1660–1697).

Historically, portrait paintings primarily memorialized the wealthy and powerful—not slaves or servants…

As a luxury, portraits were typically reserved for special occasions and significant individuals…

Let’s get real here:—commissioned portraits weren’t exactly a spur-of-the-moment thing. They were a serious investment of time and money…

These were status symbols, meant to showcase power and wealth…

No one was sitting a slave or servant down for hours to be immortalized in regal attire…

The idea that slaves or servants were dressed up in the most expensive clothes of the time and painted in their captor’s finest fabrics is not only laughable but shows an embarrassing lack of historical understanding…

Again, monarchs and high nobility did not need to commission portraits of enslaved individuals to display their wealth or status because their power was already universally recognized through their lineage, titles, and the houses they belonged to…

Their status was never in question, and their sovereignty was not contingent on visual cues of ownership but rather on historical legitimacy and territorial control…

Monarchs didn’t need to prove what was already unquestionable:—their supremacy was woven into the very fabric of the world they ruled…