Artist: Johann Froschauer Title: New World Scene, (Neue Weltszene) Date: c. 1505 Location: Augsburg, Germany Materials and Technique: Hand-colored woodcut Dimensions: 22 cm x 33.3 cm (8.6 in x 13.1 in) Rights/Image Permissions: Public Domain. Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Translation of text: "This figure represents to us the people and island, which have been discovered by the Christian King of Portugal or by his subjects. The people are thus naked, handsome, brown, well shaped in body, their heads, necks, arms, private parts, feet of men and women are a little covered with feathers. The men also have many precious stones in their faces and breasts. No one also has anything, but all things are in common. And the men have as wives those who please them, be they mothers, sisters, or friends, therein make they no distinction. They also fight with each other. They also eat each other even those who are slain, and hang the flesh of them in the smoke. They become a hundred and fifty years old. And have no government," (Metcalf).
New World Scenewas made by German artist Johann Froschauer as a reaction to the descriptions of Native Americans made by Amerigo Vespucci in his book Mundus Novum (Leitch). Vespucci was an explorer and navigator who made multiple trips to the Americas, detailing his findings and interactions with the Native people he met. Upon arriving back in Europe, his words inspired artists like Froschauer to create depictions of Indigenous people based on what Vespucci had seen. Though historians are unsure of the accuracy of the descriptions found in his book, Mundus Novum took Europe by storm and helped shape the European view of Native Americans as "lawless, lustful, and cannibalistic" (Vespucci).
As such, the Native Americans depicted in this print do not accurately represent the Brazilian Tupinamba people, but rather serve as a stereotype that depicted Indigenous people as “savages” (Watson, 2017). New World Scene represents the colonial strategy of European colonizers to persuade the rest of Europe to see Native Americans as 'less than human' and 'uncultured' in order to justify their desire to subjugate and colonize them. This image also describes Native Americans as cannibalistic, a common and untrue stereotype used to dehumanize and discredit their culture even further. One of the main reasons for colonizers to depict Native American culture in this way was to create a power dynamic that put Europeans at the height of civilized society. By creating the idea that Native Americans were ‘less than human’ or ‘uncivilized and uncultured’, colonizers worked to create the narrative that Native Americans were in need of the colonizers' help. As a result, they were able to convince and justify the spread of Christianity to Native American tribes as well as erase Native American culture through brutal means such as displacement of their tribes (think Trail of Tears), boarding schools for Native American children, and ‘reeducation’ for those still practicing their traditional customs (Smiles).
Sources Leitch, Stephaine. “Burgkmair’s Peoples of Africa and India (1508) and the Origins of Ethnography in Print.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 91, no. 2, [Taylor & Francis, Ltd., College Art Association], 2009, pp. 134–59, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40645477.
Bio Sydney Christenson is a junior nursing student who is actively involved in the Concordia Choir and tutoring as a lead biology tutor. After she graduates, she hopes to pursue either OB, ER, or OR nursing in Fargo, Moorhead before furthering her education. When not in class, you can find her practicing or singing music, reading, or at a coffee shop.