Man en vrouw uit Makassar 1682 - 1711

This engraving of a "Man en vrouw uit Makassar" was made by Pieter Schenk around the turn of the 18th century. It depicts a couple from Makassar, now part of Indonesia, during a period of increasing Dutch colonial presence in the archipelago. The image operates within a visual economy of exoticism and nascent ethnographic documentation. Note the detailed, yet possibly stereotypical, depiction of their clothing and physical features, set against a generalized tropical background. The inclusion of such details catered to a European audience keen to consume images of the "exotic" East, reinforcing a sense of European superiority and legitimizing colonial ambitions. Institutions like the Dutch East India Company played a crucial role in commissioning and disseminating such images. These pictures informed and shaped European perceptions of distant lands and peoples. To understand this image more fully, we can examine trading records, colonial archives, and travelogues of the period to reveal the complex power dynamics at play. The meaning of art is always contingent on such contexts.