Negersklaven Aufenthalt im Schiffsraum [Black slaves confined in the ship's hold; Nègres a fond de Calle; Slave trade, Brasil / Brazil]

Negersklaven Aufenthalt im Schiffsraum [Black slaves confined in the ship's hold; Nègres a fond de Calle; Slave trade, Brasil / Brazil]

(25,3 x 34,7 cm). Rare first German edition of the famous lithography by Rugendas, showing enslaved Africans in a ship's hold. It depicts the harsh reality of the slave trade, with its victims chained and stacked in an overcrowded space; an African is straining to obtain drink through the hatch and a dead body being removed by sailors. The print was presented in 1827 at the Paris Art Fair (Salon de Paris), where it sparked intense debate. The raw and realistic image of human suffering shocked many viewers and helped to place slavery and abolitionism at the heart of intellectual and political discussions. It also raised questions about the representation of suffering and violence in art, with Rugendas' raw realism being hotly debated. This image continues to be widely used to illustrate both the brutality of the slave trade and the shift in European attitudes towards it. It has been the object of many studies. In one published in 2002, Robert W. Slenes notes that the 'figure of the dead African, carried by sailors, is reminiscent of the body of Christ in representations of the Entombment. More specifically, it is very close to the image on this theme engraved by seventeenth-century artist Matthaeus Merian the elder. Merian's work would have been familiar to Rugendas's audience. (. . .) His image is close enough to Merian's to attract the attention of his viewers - or at least of those on the lookout for pictorial allusions - and make them wonder if he might not be glossing Christ's celebrated phrase in the Gospel according to Mark: "and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave [servant] of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many"' (in African Abrahams, Lucretias and Men of Sorrows: Allegory and Allusion in the Brazilian Anti-slavery Lithographs of Rugendas). The print was offered to the public in 1835 and 1836, in the French and German editions of Rugendas' travelogue ("Voyage pittoresque dans le Brésil"). In both cases, the illustrations were engraved and published by the renowned Swiss artist Karl Joseph Brodtmann. Our copy is from the German edition. Original Rugendas lithographs are rare in the market, as they were only included in the first two French and German editions of his work. -------------------- Rara primera edición alemana del famoso grabado de Rugendas, que muestra a africanos esclavizados en la bodega de un barco. Representa la dura realidad de la trata de esclavos, con sus víctimas encadenadas y apiladas en un espacio abarrotado; un africano intenta obtener bebida a través de la escotilla y un cadáver está siendo retirado por marineros. El grabado fue presentado en 1827 en el Salón de París, donde provocó un intenso debate. La imagen cruda y realista del sufrimiento humano conmocionó a muchos espectadores y ayudó a situar la esclavitud y el abolicionismo en el centro de los debates intelectuales y políticos. También planteó cuestiones sobre la representación del

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