In this engraving of inhabitants of Florida, a woman and her attendants are going to meet the king she will marry. Because Mesoamerica and the Andes are usually better attested than the rest of the Pre-Columbian Americas, this image from a different region is both interesting and valuable. However, unlike most of the images in this section of the exhibit, it was created by a European artist. It therefore has to be used with particular care, because European images of indigenous people often prioritized the picturesque at the expense of accuracy.
Reference
- Thomas B. F. Cummins, “The Indulgent Image: Prints in the New World,” in Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World, ed. Ilona Katzew (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011), 200–23.