Deconstructing Discourses of Difference at School

Abstract

This article seeks to better understand some artistic representations of black men in the Western arts (from the 15th the 19th century). The analysis refers to the education field, aiming to understand how the discourse of difference is constructed, also, through art. Examples of artistic works in this paper are: Dürer (1471-1528), Rubens (1577-1640), Debret (1768-1848) and Rugendas (1802-1858). These are all important artists within the history of Western art. It is intended, through the works analyzed, to understand the images of the black man represented in portrait style. These artworks are Albrecht Dürer’s Head of a Negro; Head of a Black Man, by Peter Paul Rubens; Different Black Nations, Jean-Baptiste Debret; and Mozambique, by Johann Moritz Rugendas.