Portrait of Diego Bemba, Servant of Don Miguel de Castro, Emissary of Soyo
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This picture by the Dutch still-life painter Jaspar Beckx belongs to a triptych owned and likely commissioned by Johann Moritz of Nassau, who served as Dutch Brazil’s governor-general from 1637 to 1644 and was an employee of the Dutch West India Company. It depicts Diego Bemba, one of two servants who accompanied the envoy from Soyo to Dutch Brazil. Dressed in a green garment accentuated with a wide white collar and metal buttons, Bemba holds a lidded woven basket receptacle for precious articles. Moritz assembled a collection of Brazilian taxidermy, rare fauna, paintings, weapons, and articles of indigenous apparel and gave choice items to Friederich Wilhelm of Brandeberg, Frederick III of Denmark, and Louis XIV of France. Moritz gave this painting, along with several others and objects collected in Brazil, to Frederick III of Denmark.
Artwork Details
- Title: Portrait of Diego Bemba, Servant of Don Miguel de Castro, Emissary of Soyo
- Artist: Attributed to Jaspar Beckx (Dutch, active 1627–47)
- Date: 1640–47
- Geography: Netherlands
- Culture: Dutch
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 29 1/2 × 24 3/8 in. (75 × 62 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing