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Two
black beings - one human, one animal - struggle with each other
to gain control.
Imagine the feat of strength displayed by this black man, who savagely,
primitively, extra-ordinarily overpowers a live bull with the sheer
strength of his bare hands.
The
capturing of this event, posed as fact in a simple landscape, reflects
many of the key ideologies that Europeans had about African's and
their innate capabilities, and as we look at the petrified, bloodshot
eyes of the bull, the audience’s fears are confirmed.
The
model used for this painting, was a black sailor from Boston named
"Wilson", or "Sammons" in the memoirs of his
most admiring artist, Benjamin Robert Haydon.
Haydon drew over thirty life drawings of Wilson, and even took as
cast of his body, which he believed was:
"...a
perfect model of beauty and activity - small body & large limbs,
with small joints - his contour was undulating and nature suffered
nothing to interrupt this beauty in any position." (The Autobiography
and memoirs of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Tom Taylor ed. 1926)
Wilson's
prized physique was discovered at a time when Britain was reacquainting
itself with the idealised masculine body. The Elgin marbles had
just been freshly unpacked from Greece, and Haydon himself got his
first viewing in 1808. The fascination with the classical, muscular
and godly body of Greek antiquity was consequently projected onto
Wilson's.
Wilson
was well looked after, and generous patrons paid for his food and
accommodation.
Although
the painting was offered at a premium of two hundred pounds to the
British Institution in 1811, it did not spark the interest or enthusiasm
commonly associated with abolitionist works. Since the painting
did not explicitly reflect the victimisation of blacks, or properly
depict a historical or allegorical event it was, for a long time,
forgotten.
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