Rembrandt's Africans, By Elmer Kolfin

In a reading titled “Rembrandt’s Africans”, Elmer Kolfin argues that although scholarly literature has never fully discussed the presence black Africans in Rembrandt’s artwork, Rembrandt chose to depict Africans as the major subject of many of his often overlooked works. The paradox of Rembrandt's Africans lies in the importance of portraying them, but not to such a significant degree as the Jews. He first establishes where and how Rembrandt applies the black African motif. Through his many figure studies and tronis, we see that Rembrandt adopted an iconography where Africans act in historical roles often dressed in exotic costume and typical attributes like pearl earrings, musical instruments and turbans. He chose to depict Africans almost