Distorted Reflections: The Visual Depiction of Africa in European Art

The last years have seen a growing interest in how European writers throughout history have written about Africa and Africans, and a number of studies of this subject have been published. 1 The question of how we have seen and see Africa has by and large been left unanswered, and by going into a historical analysis of how European pictorial artists have depicted Africa I shall try to give a preliminary answer.