In the following account University of Cincinnati historian John K. Brackett describes the famous 16th Century painting of a black courtier at the court of Margaret of Austria, the Duchess of Savoy and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.  The name and rank of this courtier remains a mystery.  Professor Brackett, however, speculates on the possible African origins of the elegantly dressed nobleman.

The striking portrait to the right of a black African man dressed in the rich garb of a courtier, his visage composed and dignified, his elegantly gloved right had resting on the handle of his sword identifies him as a member of a court. It is a shame that at this point the contour of his figure is all that we know about this sixteenth century black man. Some context will at least bring us closer to knowing more about the particular individual who sat for Mostaert’s now famous Portrait of a Moor.

Jan Mostaert was born in the city of Haarlem in the Low Countries in about 1475, dying in 1555/1556. He was born into a noble family but we know little else about him. The Netherlands was home to a sophisticated group of artists who began experimenting with their own imaginative style of realism separate from Italian artists of the Renaissance. Part of this group, much of Jan’s work was destroyed in a fire in 1576; some other paintings once attributed to him are now assigned to a contemporary, Adriaen Isenbrant.  Mostaert very much looked and acted the part of the handsome, educated, well-mannered Low Countries nobleman.

These qualities and his artistic talents and interests attracted the attention of Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. Born in 1480, she died on December 1,1530 in the Low Countries. Margaret was a participant in and patron of the arts, selecting Mostaert as her court portraitist in 1518. She served twice as Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, the first time from 1507 to 1515, then from 1519 to 1530, the last being the bookend dates for the