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Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo - Image 1
Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo - Image 2

Raffaello Schiaminossi and Giovanni Antonio di Paoli

Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo

1607

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Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo

Raffaello Schiaminossi and Giovanni Antonio di Paoli

Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo

Don Antonio Manuele de Wnth, Ambassador of the King of the Kongo

1607

Physical Qualities Etching and engraving, Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 275 x 197 mm. (10 13/16 x 7 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Purchased as the gift of Lorraine and Mark Schapiro, Baltimore; and Print & Drawing Society Fund
Object Number 1997.155
This print commemorates, via the central oval portrait and the surrounding vignettes, the ill-fated diplomatic mission of Antonio Manuele Nsaku ne Vunda to the Vatican. Antonio Manuele was the cousin of King Alvaro II of the Kongo, who sought to establish a Catholic diocese in his kingdom as a means of broadening Kongo’s international relations and exposing the corruption of Portuguese ecclesiastics living there. Antonio Manuele reached Rome only after a three-year detention in Lisbon by the Portuguese. His health failing, he died on January 5, 1608, a mere two days after he arrived in Rome. The two scenes at the bottom of this print show Pope Paul V administering last rights to Antonio Manuele, and the procession to Santa Maria Maggiore that was part of the elaborate funeral given to the ambassador.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1997; C.G. Boerner, New York
BMA, Jacobs Wing rotation, 18 July 2018 - 27 January 2019.

The Walters Art Museum, "Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe," October 14, 2012 - January 20, 2013 circulated to The Princeton University Art Muesum February 26 2013 - June 09 2013.

BMA, Jacobs Wing rotation, 5 May - 10 September 2008.

Boerner sale catalogue #108, Italian Prints, Spring 1997, cat.#38
Cecile Fromont, "The Art of Conversion Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo", North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. fig. 66.
Boerner sale catalogue #108, Italian Prints, Spring 1997, cat.#38

Signed: 1

Inscribed: Verso: above the image, top center, in plate: "Da Don Alvaro Re di Congo e' spedito? Ambasciatore al Sommo Pontefice" bove the image, top right, in plate "Arriva in Roma et e'alloggiato nel / Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano"; in the image, around the oval portrait, in plate: "D'ANTONIVS EMANVEL MARCHIO DE WNTH ORATOR REGIS GONGI AD SVMMV PONT:"; in image, lower right, in plate "Cum Priuilegio / Summi Ponteficis"; in image, lower right, in plate: "Superiorum / permissu"; in image, lower center, in plate: "Roma Ioans Antonij de Paulis Formis 1608"; in plate, at lower center left: "In articolo di morte e uisitato / da N.S. Papa Paolo. V."; in image, lower right, in plate "IN articolo di morte e' visitato da N.S. Papa Paolo V."; in image,lower center right, in plate: "E' portato a' sepelline con Regia Pompa / in S. Maria Maggiore il giorno dell' Epifania"; below image, in plate: "Questo Ambasciatore arrivò in Roma mercodi 2 di Gennaro 1608. incontrato da molté Prelati e' Nobilita fu' allogiato nel Palazzo Apostolico doue per essere infermo diede / de ordine di Sua Sta. gli furonio soministrate le cose necessarie ala sua cura fu visitato da N.S. sendoglisi gravato il male havuta la Sta. Benedictione da sua Beatitudine a S di detto alle 7 / hore di notte passo' a meglior vita et il giorno della Epifania alle 2 3 hore con Regia Pompa fu portato a'sepellire a S. Maria Maggiore havendolo sua Sta. fatto accompagnare dalla / sua guardia suizzera dal Rmo. Patriarca Biondo da Vescovi assistenti di Cappella Prothonotarij Apostolici et dalla suia famiglia, et' offitiali Palatini a' cavallo con habito purpureo / et a 24 detto con Magnificenza Regia gli furono fatte l'esquie. Questo Ambasciaria e' stata la prima mandata del Re di Congo alla Sede Apca. sendo questo Re D. Aluaro il 4o. Re expiano / Congo e' un Regno nelle ultime parti del Africa ricchisso d'auorio ma poverisso. dimetalli si che in luogo di moneta si spendono gusci di lumachelle. Questo Regno per essere in Ethiopia pro/ duce li Popoli neri come era questo Ambasciatore vi si usa di andar nudo con una semplice coperta tessuta di fronde di palma se bene in Roma è venuto nel habito che qui si vede."

Artist

Raffaello Schiaminossi

1571–1621

Italian, 1572 - 1622
Meet Raffaello Schiaminossi

Publisher

Giovanni Antonio di Paoli

1574–1624

Italian, active late 16th - early 17th centuries
Meet Giovanni Antonio di Paoli
On View at the BMA

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