From Greek Proverb to Soap Advert: Washing the Ethiopian

Author(s): Jean Michel Massing

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 58 (1995), pp. 180-201
Published by: The Warburg Institute
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 FROM GREEK PROVERB TO SOAP ADVERT:
WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN*
Jean Michel Massing

ate nineteenth-century advertisements rarely dealt in subtleties, and the

possibility of presenting their claims, quite literally, in terms of black and
white proved irresistible to many advertisers. Among the most striking cases
are soap adverts which show black people dramatically losing their skin pigmen-
tation as a result of the cleansing process.' A chromolithograph by I. Boichard for
the Lessive de la Menagere, for example, shows a woman washing white the face
and back of her child. A man, whose skin is even darker, has dipped his hand into
the liquid, with spectacular results.2 Lixivium claimed to have the same effect ('Elle
blanchirait un negre') in an advertisement for Saponnade (1902),' while the poster
by Edouard Bernard for Le Savon La Perdrix (c. 1910) illustrated how 'Ce savon
economique blanchit tout', with the bleached arm of a stereotyped black man. Le
Savon Dirtoff (Fig. 53) seemed to go beyond its brief in an anonymous poster of
around 1930, by whitening rather than just cleaning the hand of an American-
minstrel type in the familiar striped trousers.4 Still, the simple Swiss peasant crowd
on a poster by Edouard-Louis Baud for the Savonnerie Nationale de Geneve (c.
1900) was barely less of a caricature than the laughing black man, admiring the loss
of the pigmentation he has suffered after washing his hands (Fig. 54); blackness
drips like wet paint from his elbows to form puddles on the ground. Today, when
* This article was London 1978, p. 232, with ills. For England see e.g.
completed while working on The
Image of the Black in Western Art project for the Menil the advertisement for Chlorinol Soda Bleaching in M.
Foundation. I thank Ladislas Bugner, the editor of the Jubb, Cocoa & Corsets. A Selection of Late Victorian and
project, for his help and encouragement; not only did Edwardian Posters... Preserved in the Public Record Office,
he generously make available the extensive material he London 1984, no. 49 with fig. 49 ('We are Going to Use
has collected on the subject, but he tirelessly discussed "Chlorinol" and be like De White Nigger'); see also the
individual images and general issues, above all the ques- introduction to this book for the socio-cultural back-
tion of the relationship of art to life. I am also indebted ground to advertisements for cleansing agents in the
to Elizabeth McGrath and Paul Taylor for stimulating 19th century. For the increase in the depiction of black
suggestions, and to Monique Bugner, Karen C. C. Africans in this period, often in distinctly demeaning
Dalton, Andrew Morral, Malcolm Jones, Francesco roles, see N. Bancel, P. Blanchard and L. Gervereau,
Pellizzi, Monika Smith and J. B. Trapp for much in- Images et colonies. Iconographie et propagande coloniale sur
teresting information. lAfrique fran(aise de 1880 a 1962, Paris 1993; for the
1 A large collection of images relating to this subject role of photographs see E. Edwards, Anthropologyand
is found in R. Bachollet, J.-B. Debost, A.-C. Lelieur and Photography, 1860-1920, New Haven and London 1992.
M.-C. Peyriere, Negripub.L'imagedes Noirs dans la publi- 2 Bachollet et al. (as in n. 1), pp. 92-3, fig. 123 and p.
cite, Paris 1992, pp. 66-9, 92-100. No advertisement 219, no. 123.
with this subject is found in M. Scholz-Hinsel, Exotische Ibid., p. 95, fig. 127 and p. 219, no. 127.
Welten,EuropaischePhantasien. Das ExotischePlakat, Stutt- 4 Respectively ibid., p. 96, fig. 129 and p. 219, no. 129;
gart 1987. For Dutch examples see J. Nederveen Piet- pp. 96-7, fig. 131 and p. 219, no. 131. The Savon La
erse, Whiteon Black. Imagesof Africa and Blacksin Western Coquille used the same formula, giving it a topical slant
Popular Culture,New Haven and London 1992, pp. 195- by reference to the Conference of Algesiras (1906) on
7, with ills. For American examples see Ethnic Notions. the political status of Morocco: ibid., pp. 96-7, fig. 130
Black Images of the White Mind. An Exhibition of Afro- and p. 219, no. 130.5.
5 Bachollet et al. (as in n. 1), pp. 94-5,
American Stereotypeand Caricaturefrom the Collectionof fig. 128 and p.
JanetteFaulkner,exhib. cat. (Berkeley Art Center), Berke- 219, no. 128. For a recent study of national stereotypes
ley 1982, pp. 77-8, nos 203-4, with ills; and Ethnic and a good bibliography of the subject see U. Nussbeck,
Imagesin Advertising,exhib. cat. (The Balch Institute of Schottenrock und Lederhose. Europaische Nachbarn in
Ethnic Studies), Philadelphia 1984, p. 5, fig. 3; more Symbolen und Klischees (Kleine Schriften der Freunde des
examples are found in S. Everett, History of Slavery, Museums fuirVolkskunde, xiv), Berlin 1994 (pp. 10-13,

180
jou• nal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 58, 1995

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 181
....
AL
Le VOn Enve
DIRTOFF partout!
meblanchit!

Fig. 53-Poster for Savon Dirtoff, c. 1930.

Paris, Bibliotheque Fornay
Fig. 54-Edouard-Louis Baud, poster for
Savonnerie Nationale de Geneve, c. 1900

consumers are anxious to be assured of the mild effect of detergents on human

skin, the appeal of this message would be doubtful. The racist overtones are
perhaps most explicit in those images that present the naive amazement of black
natives at the wonders of European technical achievement.6
This imagery is derived, albeit by a circuitous route, from the expression 'To
wash an Ethiop [Blackamoor] white' ('Blanchir un More'), meaning to labour in
vain, to attempt the impossible.7 A biblical text was often cited in connection with it,

nos 1-33 for stereotypes of non-Europeans). For the stove polish, for example, a black nanny darkens the
conceptualisation of stereotypes see J. C. Brigham, skin of a smiling white child: Ethnic Imagesin Advertising
'Ethnic Stereotypes', PsychologicalBulletin, lxxvi, 1971, (as in n. 1), p. 5, fig. 3; see also Bachollet et al., p. 69.
7 For a
pp. 15-38. study of this saying in English see M. P. Tilley,
6 For a critical assessment of such
stereotypes see A Dictionaryof the Proverbsin England in the Sixteenthand
C. Delporte, 'L'Afrique dans l'affiche, la publicit6, le SeventeenthCenturies,Ann Arbor 1950, p. 190, no. E186:
dessin de presse', in Bancel et al. (as in n. 1), pp. 160-9; 'To wash an Ethiop (Blackamoor, Moor) white'; see also
for the role of blacks in advertising see also J.-B. Debost, the useful material found in L. van Norden, The Black
'La publicite lave plus blanc', Images et colonies.Nature, Feet of the Peacock.The Color-Concept 'Black'from the Greeks
discours et influence de l'iconographiecoloniale liWea la through the Renaissance,Lanham etc. 1985, pp. 80-91.
propagandecolonialeet a la reprisentationdes Africains et de For the proverb in France see A. J. V. Le Roux de
l'Afriqueen France, de 1920 aux Indipendances(Actes du Lincy, Le Livre desproverbes frangais, i, Paris 1859, p. 293,
Colloque organis6 par I'ACHAC du 20 au 22 janvier noting that 'Blanchir un More' means 'Essayer l'impos-
1993, Bibliotheque Nationale), Paris 1993, pp. 97-102. sible'. For the saying in Dutch see M. Koning, Lexicon
The association of shoeblack with black people is wide- hieroglyphicum sacro-profanum,iii, Dordrecht and Amster-
spread in late 19th- and early 20th-century advertising dam 1723, pp. 181-2; also F. A. Stoett, Nederlandsche
(see e.g. Bachollet et al., as in n. 1, pp. 101-9). On a spreckworden, spreekwijzen, uitdrukkingen en gezegden,
late 19th-century chromolithograph made for Dixon's Zutphen 1925, p. 47, no. 1556 ('Het is den Moriaan

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182 JEAN MICHEL MASSING
Jeremiah 13.23: 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then
may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil?' Indeed an advertisement by
Paul Iribe for Benzine Colas (1909) invoked the leopard parallel by showing a nude
African girl using the solvent to dissolve the spots on the feline's skin.8 The proverb,
as so often, has classical antecedents and a whole history in fables, emblem books
and paintings.
,

The saying is first recorded in a short epigram by Lucian preserved in the Greek
Anthology (xi.428): 'Why are you vainly washing your Indian body? Give up the
plan. You cannot make the sun shine on the murky night.'9 Lucian elsewhere talked
of 'wasting words, and, as the proverb has it, trying to scrub an Ethiop white.'10 The
expression appeared in the lists of proverbs by Zenobius (i.46), Diogenianus (i.45)
and Apostolius Byzantius (i.68), now codified as 'You are washing an Ethiopian"'
-in classical antiquity the terms 'Indian' and 'Ethiopian' were often used inter-
changeably with reference to black people.12 It was from Zenobius that the proverb
reached the man who seems to have introduced it into Renaissance culture: Eras-
mus.'3 The saying appears in Erasmus's first collection of adages (1500) in two
forms: as 'Aethiopem dealbare' ('To whiten an Ethiopian') and as 'Aethiopem
lavas' ('You are washing an Ethiopian'); 4 but it is in the Adagiarum chiliades of 1508
that we find a longer discussion ('Aethiopem lavas; aethiopem dealbas', 'You are
washing, or whitening an Ethiopian': for Erasmus, both expressions have the same
meaning). He quotes Lucian's version of the proverb, then comments:
that inborn blackness of the Ethiopian, which Pliny thinks to be a result of heat from the
nearness of the sun, cannot be washed awaywith water nor whitened by any means whatever.
This will be particularly apposite when a matter of doubtful morality is decorated by a gloss
of words, or when praise is given to one who does not deserve praise, or an unteachable
person is being taught.15
gewasschen'). In the catalogue of impossibilia which white prince: H. Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1st
the female students are said to be attempting in Gilbert edn 1922), London 1962, pp. 128-40. See also below,
and Sullivan's Princess Ida, the bleaching of 'niggers' n. 44.
9 Ei; Ti
duly appears (a phrase suppressed in modern perform- gXtTvv viRTtq &gx;q 'IvvtKdv; lcyo Tyvip , oi
ances). 8vaWMat8vopephv vKVXaKcXa0t6Cx5Xat.English translation
8 Bachollet et al. (as in n. 1), p. 98, fig. 133, p. 100, by W. R. Paton, from The Greek Anthology, iv, London
and p. 219, no. 133. For the saying 'A leopard (panther) 1918, pp. 274-5.
cannot change his spots', see Tilley (as in n. 7), p. 377, 10 Adversus indoctum et libros multos ementem, 28.
no. L206. Gregory Nazianzus, Oratio,iv.62 (Contra Juli- 11 For these proverbs see E. L. von Leutsch and F. W.
anum, i), used the parallel: see his Discours 4-5, contre Schneidewin, Corpus paroemiographorum graecorum, 2 vols,
Julien. Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes par Jean Hildesheim 1958, i, pp. 18, 187, and ii, p. 258, respect-
Bernardi (Sources chr6tiennes, cccix), Paris 1983, pp. ively. For this notion see also F. M. Snowden, Jr, Blacks
170-1. Best-known, however was Jerome, who in his in Antiquity. Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience,
Letter lxix linked it to the baptism of the Eunuch (Acts Cambridge, Mass. 1970, p. 5.
8.27-38): 'Eunuchus Candacis reginae lectione pro- 12 See E. McGrath, 'The Black Andromeda', this
phetica Christi baptismati praeparatur; mutat contra Journal, lv, 1992, pp. 1-18 (2-3, 10, 15).
naturam "Aethiops pellem suam et pardus varietates 13 He probably knew it from an Aldine edition of
suas"'. For the biblical and patristic sources relating to 1505: 'Collectio proverbiorum Tarrhaei, et Didymi, item
blackness see J. M. Courtis, 'Traitement patristique eorum, quae apud Sudam, aliosque habentur per ordi-
de la th6matique "6thiopienne"', LImage du Noir dans nem literarum', in Vita et Fabellae Aesopi cum interpreta-
l'art occidental / The Image of the Black in Western Art, ed. tione latina..., Venice 1505, n.p.
L. Bugner, ii.1, Fribourg 1979, pp. 9-31. The biblical 14 Desiderius Erasmus, Adagiorum collectanea, Paris
saying is used, for example, by G. P. Valeriano in his 1500, sig. eVIr, no. 407 ('Aethiopem dealbare'), and sig.
Hieroglyphica(edn Lyons 1626, p. 128), under 'Mens eVIv, no. 414 ('Aethiopem lavas').
15 Erasmus,
reproba': 'Pardalis non mutat cutis maculas, neque ex Adagia, i.4.50; idem, Adagiorum chiliades,
nigro fit albus Aethiops...'; for this passage see Van Venice 1508, fol. 50v; see also idem, Opera omnia, ii,
Norden (as in n. 7), p. 120. It was with the biblical Leiden 1703, cols 169-70; idem, CollectedWorks,xxxi,
phrase that Dr Dolittle sought to discourage the- Toronto etc. 1982, pp. 356-7.
unsuccessful-attempt to turn a black prince into a

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 183
In 1515, Erasmus added a further important reference: 'the adage, it seems,
comes from a fable of Aesop'-an observation which had in fact already been made
in 1508 in connection with a related maxim (2988), 'An Ethiopian cannot be
whitened' ('Aethiops non albescit'). There he had commented:
This is usually said of those who will never change their nature. For that which is inborn is
not easily altered. A story of Aesop is told about a certain man who bought an Ethiopian
slave; thinking the man's colour was not natural but had been caused by the negligence of
the previous master, he subjected the man's face to such vigorous washing that he left him
ill, as well as coloured no better than before.16
The fable mentioned by Erasmus is not by Aesop himself, but is an Aesopic tale
by Aphthonius (11), where the moral was that natures are not easy to change. 17The
editio princeps of Aphthonius's fables was published in Leiden in 1597, based on just
one manuscript; this version was taken over in later editions of the Aesopic corpus
until the nineteenth century. 8 The first Latin translations of the fable appeared in
the fifteenth century; but it was a translation apparently published for the first time
in Basle in 1524 which became the standard version for the next two centuries.19
When this text was republished in 1561 in a Paris edition, the story was illustrated
with a woodcut printed from a worn block first used in early French editions of
Alciati's Emblemata.20 Latin editions of the fable generally present the text unem-
bellished, but some vernacular versions freely developed the theme. The slave ac-
quired a collar and chain (Fig. 55) in the illustration to a French edition of 'Aesop'
of 1678, republished in 1731.21 Pierre de Frasnay, in his Mythologie (1750), opined
that the Ethiopian was black as a devil, and that the merchant regretted the price
he had to pay for 'cet objet epouvantable, propre 'a faire peur aux enfants'.22 De
Frasnay seems to have used a second-hand account of the story rather than Aphtho-
nius's original, for he implies that it was the fable that introduced these derogatory
references to the black man.23 At any rate his moral was clear: one cannot change
the defects of the body, but the soul can be purified by care and attention.24

16 'De iis dici solitum, qui nunquam mutaturi sunt to Him or Closely Connected with the Literary Tradition that
ingenium. Quicquid enim nativum, id haud facile muta- BearsHis Name,Urbana 1952, p. 481, no. 393.
tur. Fertur Aesopicus apologus de quodam, qui empto 18 F. Sbordone, 'Recensioni retoriche delle favole eso-
Aethiopi, cum eum colorem arbitraretur non nativum piane', Rivista Indo-Greco-Italica di filologia-lingua-anti-
esse, sed domini superioris accidisse neglectu, assidua chita, xvi.3-4, 1932, p. 46.
lotura faciem divexavit, ita ut morbum etiam adiunge- 19 For an
early translation see Aesopus e graeco in
ret, colore nihilo, quam antea fuerat, meliore.' Erasmus, latinum traductus per Omnibonum Leonicenum... [Venice
Adagia, iii.10.88: idem, 1508 (as in n. 15), fol. 237v; also 1470?], n.p.; Aesop, Fabellae graece et latine, Basle 1524,
idem, Opera omnia, ii.6, Amsterdam and Oxford 1981, p. 171.
pp. 580-1, no. 2988. 20 Aesop, Fabulae, Paris 1561, p. 96, no. 25; see A.
17'A man bought an Ethiopian slave with the idea that Alciati, Emblematum libri II. Nuper adiectis Seb. Stockhameri
his colour was the way it was because of the negligence Germ. in primum librum succinctis commentariolis, Lyons
of the previous owner. When he took him home he ap- 1556, pp. 139-40, no. 84. For Alciati see further below,
plied every kind of soap and tried to clean him in every p. 185.
sort of bath. Yet not only was he unable to change his 21 Aesop, Fables en quatrains dont il y en a une
partie au
colour, he made the man ill from what he had been Labyrinte de Versailles, Paris 1678, p. 152; see also Esope,
through. The fable shows that people's natures remain Nouvel recueil des fables... mises avec le sens moral
enfrancois Paris
exactly as they first presented themselves.' (Ai0to~irt;t en quatre vers, et des figures a chaque fable, 1731, pp.
Toto)tov TO PCog(x 8o0K)v & oiW 279-80.
(OvT•X•to wtV • 22 P. de Frasnay, Mythologie, ou recueil de
p6otFpov YovTog. KaXt apcrXXc'(to)V o'tKcX8 dt&vTa
XgFi,•k
gyv rn,04 fables grecques,
,
lpoary~t& [55tgatOa, i&doIt XoTpoi;g Itp&rXo XtSpi6ptvw. esopiques et sybaritiques, mises en vers frangois, i, Paris 1750,
Kai Tb
6gv XPO)WXt T
ga cXPa(av 'K
01K vowEiv 8F Td)Iovdy pp. 108-9.
Ip(XPYarbKoeXXV.gVOvoGi (O' 4oexwl ;6;poflkOov Tb
'tpdTepov. 23 Ibid., p. 107: 'Si Esope 6toit Ethiopien, comme
See Corpus fabularum Aesopicarum, ed. A. Hausrath quelques personnes le pr6tendent, il auroit eu tort de
(Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum maltraiter ainsi les gens de son Pays.'
Teubneriana), i.2, Leipzig 1956, p. 135, no. 6; B. E. 24 English versions of the fable take further liberties,
Perry, Aesopica. A Series of Texts Relating to Aesop or Ascribed especially such versified paraphrases as the anonymous

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184 JEANMICHEL
MASSING

N Homm
U & lIet nuits&
cs jours pa•I
A i tfeifn-
un more, il y perd
tiA•dre
rure.
Ahas AettiopeMquidPufhsdAbdefnent~ic,
Cc qtuuncfois nousfominmesparNa-
I 4 4ftrc nigrd' nem ptd s0l (tcabrdas
ture
to-
L'Artn'yfaitrien,nousIc Commcs from A. Alciati,
Fig. 56-Illustration
jours. Emblematum liber,Augsburg 1531

Fig. 55-Illustration from Aesop,

Fables en quatrains, Paris 1678

The various editions of 'Aesop' and the frequent illustrations of the anecdote
must have helped diffuse both image and story, especially among the less learned
public.25 The proverb itself, because of the biblical parallel, was widely familiar.26
Aesop Improved,first published in 1673: "'Of the Black- authors,London 1708, entitles the fable 'The Negro: Or
more". One bought a black thinking to make him white, labour in Vain'. His moral was (pp. 114-15): 'The
/Thought 'twas ill keeping made him look like night, Characters that Nature had impress'd, /Keep their
/He wash'd, and scrub'd and rub'd him every day, primaeval Stamp on ev'ry Breast; /And he that wou'd,
/Supposing he was made of as white clay /As other what's printed there, erase, /As well might hope to
men, but found himself deceiv'd, /Blackness in Black- blanch a Negro's Face. /No Pow'r an Innate Quality
mores can not be retriev'd.' This led him to propose a can sway, /That to its Native Bent will force its Way:
Moral: 'As well may you make day of what is night, /As /And still, the more it is diverted thence, /Recurrs with
wash a Blackmore till that he be white; /Whilst you use more impetuous Violence.' Here Horace's famous com-
water it your Art will foil, /Though better colours might ment on the difficulty of extirpating 'nature' is invoked
be laid in oil: /Nature, attempts to change it, doth (Epistles,i.10.24-5: 'Naturam expellas furca, tamen us-
desie; /As interest, so nature will not lie.' The first Eng- que recurrit'). For Erasmus's discussion of this 'adage',
lish translation of the story seems to have appeared in Adagia, ii.7.14, see his Opera omnia (as in n. 16), ii.4,
Aesop, Fables... with Morals and Reflexions. By Sir Roger 1987, pp. 98-9; also idem, CollectedWorks(as in n. 15),
L'Estrange, London 1692, p.143 (but cf. Aesop, The xxxiv, 1992, pp. 10-11. See also the version of the fable
Phrygian Fabulist: or, the Fables ... extractedfrom the Latin by Charles Draper, in Aesop, Fables translatedby Charles
copieand Moralized.By LeonardWillan, London 1650, pp. Draper,London 1760, pp. 234-5.
148-46[=149], no. 180). The verses are also found in 25 I have tried to chart the presence of Aphthonius's
AesopImprovedor, abovethreehundredand fiftyfables, mostly fable in the hundreds of editions of the Aesopic corpus
Aesops. With their Morals, paraphrased in English verse, published before 1800 located in the British Library
London 1673, p. 193. A poem in Edmund Arwaker's and Cambridge University Library. There are, however,
Truth in fiction: or Morality in Masquerade.A collectionof also plenty of later examples which I have not managed
two hundredand twentyfive selectfables of Aesop, and other to survey, such as Edward Baldwin [William Godwin],

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 185

0peftm ett*
0Tor que a0%emmittten)co0trosetil

to quicers(Jozaforme
parquor f(, eftir
pot a fajitk4$1c+.
c0#purns 44
c.
itc4Cantine bemmwt

Abluw
Aetblopem Jfhlura?4b
quid deftnenoffis
Aalf rare nigrtgnmo poteft tenebra.

Fig. 57-Illustration from A. Alciati,LivretdesEmblemes,

Paris1536

There are many European variants. The quatrain found in the 1678 French edition
of Aesopic fables, Fablesen quatrains,claims that it is simply a waste of dye to try to
colour (a variation on bleaching) a black man.27 Nevertheless, the widest diffusion
of the motto in the sixteenth century and later was undoubtedly brought about by
the Emblemataof Alciati.
'Impossibile' is the motto of the emblem on the subject which appears in
Alciati's Emblematumliberof 1531 (Fig. 56). Its epigram translates as: 'Why are you
washing an Ethiopian in vain? Ah, desist, /No one can illumine the darkness of
black night.'2s The picture in fact shows a man who looks not the least Ethiopian,
either in skin colour or facial features. The French editions, such as that of Paris
1536, have a similar message ('Impossible'), the woodcuts this time showing the
man's dark skin (Fig. 57). The accompanying French verses expand on the moral
FablesAncient and Modern.Adaptedfor the Use of Children, 27 Aesop, 1678 (as in n.
21), p. 152: 'Un homme passe
London 1805, pp. 165-8, Fable XLVI. et les nuits et les jours /A teindre un more, il y perd
26 According to John Baret's An Alvearie or Quadruple sa teinture. /Ce qu'une Fois nous sommes par Nature
Dictionarie,London 1580 (A185), it is 'A Proverbe to be /L'Art n'y fait rien, nous le sommes toujours.'
applyed to those, whose labour and industrie is to no 28 A. Alciati, Emblematumliber,Augsburg 1531, fol. E3r;
purpose, and as we terme it, to bestowe labour in see M. A. de Angelis, Gli emblemidi Andrea Alciati nella
vayne'; for further examples see Tilley (as in n. 7), p. edizioneSteynerdel 1531, Salerno 1984, p. 276, no. 83; S.
190, no. E186. SebastiAn, Alciati: Emblemas.Edici6ny comentario,Madrid
1985, p. 96.

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186 JEAN MICHEL MASSING
lesson: '...Light cannot be born at night.
An inveterate vice remains.'29 A German
edition (published in Paris, 1542) adds:
'...natural vice and what time has aged
can never be eradicated, no matter what
art one uses'.30
Alciati's verses in fact reproduce his
Latin version of Lucian's epigram from
the Greek Anthology, which was first
published in Basle in 1529, along with
other translations by Janus Cornarius,
Ottman Nachtigall (Luscinius), and
Johannes Philippson (Sleidanus). 31 The
only change is to turn Lucian's Indian
into an Ethiopian, thus indicating clearly
to Renaissance readers that the man in
question was black.
It was certainly Alciati's emblem that
prompted Cesare Ripa to include an
image of 'Opera vana' in his Iconologia.
A laer la te d'un on
angre Ripa aimed to produce a dictionary of
perd sa lessive. personifications, so for his purposes the
black man became a single figure wash-
Fig. 58-Pellerin & Cie, Proverbesen Images, ing himself in a vain attempt to 'levar
Imageried'Epinalno. 827. via la negrezza'.32 The image was illus-
trated in Jean Baudoin's edition of 1644
as 'Peine perdue', but, not surprisingly perhaps, seems never to have been taken up
by artists as a painted or sculpted personification. In his commentary, Baudoin ob-
served that the message was too obvious to need comment; he merely recalled the
proverb, 'Qu' 'a laver le corps d'un More, pour le faire devenir blanc, on n'y perd la
lessive.'33The saying, specifically applied to the black man's head, continued to live
in French popular imagery, appearing for example on a sheet of 'Proverbes en
Images' published by Pellerin in Epinal in the late nineteenth century (Fig. 58).34
Still, for the earlier period the image was mainly diffused through emblem books,
such as Whitney's ChoiceofEmblemesof 1586 (Fig. 59).35

29 A. Alciati, Livretdes Emblemes,Paris 1536, sigs MIIIv- SSC. Ripa, Iconologie,ou explicationnouvelle de plusieurs
MIVr. I have based my translations largely on those images,Paris 1644, pp. 166-7.
34 Pellerin & Cie, Proverbesen Images, n.d.,
given in P. M. Daly, with S. Cuttler, AndreasAlciatus, II. Imagerie
Emblemsin Translation,Toronto etc. 1985, Embl. 59. d'Epinal No. 827: this coloured woodcut is also found
s30 '...Der gleichen nim dier eben war, /Naturlich in Imagerie d'Epinal, Album de 100 images composipour
laster, oder sunst /Lang zeit veraltt, wierd numer gar fillettes et garcons, Epinal n.d. Another Image d'Epinal,
/Aussgelescht, was man brauch ffir Kunst.' A. Alciati, from the series Les grandesverits had a similar theme: 'A
Emblematumlibellus... recensper WolphgangumHungerum vouloir blanchir un n&gre. Le barbier perd son savon
Bavarum, rhythmis Germanicis versus, Paris 1542, pp. (see Pieterse, as in n. 1, pp. 195, 197 ill.; Bachollet et
188-9, no. LXXXIV ('Unmfiglich', is the motto). al., as in n. 1, p. 69). Such images, which were widely
31 Selectaepigrammatagraeca latine versa, Basle 1529, p. diffused, may have influenced the iconography of the
144. The translators are discussed inJ. Hutton, The Greek soap advertisements with which I began. The washing of
Anthologyin Italy to the Year1800, Ithaca, NY 1935, and in a Moor is also found on 19th-century Dutch popular
idem, The GreekAnthologyin Franceand in theLatin Writers prints illustrating either proverbs or fables: see M. de
of the Netherlandsto the Year1800, Ithaca, NY 1946 (esp. Meyer, De volks-en kinderprentin de Nederlandenvan de 15e
p. 772 for the epigram). For Lucian's poem see above, tot de 20e eeuw, Antwerp and Amsterdam 1962, p. 166,
n. 9. no. 158 (see also the woodcut published by C. Brouwer
32 C. Ripa, Iconologia,Rome 1593, p. 184. at Hoorn: ibid., p. 110, fig. 47) and p. 185, no. 35.

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 187

3 labluacreo 57aram~xt..
LEAEO
^91 I

-Mondpthongh4
ofte and asine more then due.-.-p..,
With waifhing e

For thou. hlalt f indc, thatNature is of powre, ..q;i07,le'

Doe what thouc fe,,nito hue: HoatgPA
disape'*hie?-former tu 0 a

widi a. foke wee-Naturc td=rite awaice ("0 rl" en

Thoughe NNW- "
Shee turnes if We Withedrawe our hande:
agame,',
And ofte to conquer her affaie,
thoughe, wee

Yet al in vaine, the -uttiesif f lillwee iblAnde:

Then enermore, in what thou (oef 4alei.
Let reafon, rule., and doe the cli nges thou m~aic.

---equw* A nd es in ria.,
Nunquam ex degenhierifegenesvfw felo, posi.i
It nunquom ex-floU d o crdatu*4fiet4bte.

Fig. 59-Illustration from G. Whitney, A Choice of Emblemes,Leiden 1586.

35 Geffrey Whitney, A Choice of Emblemes, and other Erasmus's discussion of Lucian's epigram in the Adagia
Devises,Leiden 1586, p. 57. The marginal notes refer to (2988), and the passage from Horace later cited by

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188 JEAN MICHEL MASSING
But English works like Whitney's had little influence, at any rate by comparison
with the Emblemataof Alciati, which went through more than a hundred editions. 36
The fact that the woodcut of the first printing (Augsburg 1531, published by Hein-
rich Steyner) shows the washed Ethiopian as a white man (Fig. 56) would seem to
confirm that Alciati himself had nothing to do with the pictures; he probably did
not even plan to have his epigrams illustrated.37 Later editions coloured the Ethi-
opian black, either by hatching or by keeping a portion of the woodblock uncut
(Fig. 57). Alciati's editors and commentators regularly underlined the point of
the story. Sebastian Stockhammer, in a note first included in a Lyons edition of
1556, based himself on Erasmus's 'Aethiopem lavas' adage;38 so too did Francesco
Sanchez's commentary, first published in 1573.39 The same year Claude Mignault
published a long analysis of the emblem; he noted its classical origin and Erasmus's
discussion in the Adagia, and reproduced the verses from Barthelemy Aneau's
emblem entitled 'Naturam ars non mutat' (1552).41 Learned annotations by Lor-
enzo Pignoria were added in the edition published by Pietro Paolo Tozzi at Padua
in 1618,41but the most formidable scholarly apparatus is certainly that provided in
the famous 1621 Paduan edition by Johannes Thuilius, also published by Tozzi,
which incorporates the commentaries of Stockhammer, Sanchez, Mignault and
Pignoria,4 and documents the whole classical background.
Alciati's emblem was given a novel and unexpected setting in the engraving by
Johannes Sadeler 1 (1550-c. 1600), where the Ethiopian submits to his useless wash-
ing next to a grandiose fountain overlooking a rocky river landscape and ancient
ruins (Fig. 60). The inscription not only reproduces Alciati's version of Lucian but
also provides a reference: 'Andr. Alciat' (not visible in Fig. 60). This print seems to
have been part of a whole series based on Alciati.43 It was hardly surprising that
reference should have been made to Alciati's poem in the inscriptions to prints
illustrating the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch, especially given the tradition of

Arwaker. Whitney ends with a Latin quotation from river, he points to a contemporary lesson: 'Indurat hert
Barthdlemy Aneau taken from Claude Mignault's com- of heretikes /Much blacker then the mole; /With worde
mentary on Alciati (1573): B. Aneau, Picta poesis,Lyons or writte who sekes to purge, /starke ded he blowes the
1552, p. 54; quoted in A. Alciati, Omnia... emblemata. cole.' J. Manning, The Emblems of Thomas Palmer: 'Tvwo
Adiectis commentariiset scholiis... per Claudium Minoem, Hundred Poosees', Sloane MS. 3794, New York 1988, pp.
Antwerp 1573, p. 182. See also E. D. Jones, The Eliza- 56, 237 no. 52.
bethan Image of Africa, [Charlottesville, Va] 1971, pp. 36 For the many editions see H. Green, AndreaAlciati
45-8, fig. 15. Jones notes (p. 48) that: 'The proverb in and his Book of Emblems. A Biographical and Bibliographical
various forms-'You wash an Ethiop" or 'You labor in Study,London 1872.
vain (to wash an Ethiop white)" and other variants of 37 Alciati, 1531 (as in n. 28), sig. E3r. For the illus-
it-are found dozens of times in Elizabethan and Jaco- tration of the first edition see H. Miedema, 'The Term
bean writings.' Whitney's emblem provided C. H. Lyons Emblemain Alciati', thisJournal, xxxi, 1968, pp. 234-50.
with the title of his book: To Wash an Aethiop White. 38 Alciati, 1556 (as in n. 20), pp. 139-40.
British Ideas about Black African Educability,1530-1960, 39 Francesco Sanchez, Comment. in And. Alciati Emble-
New York 1975. Thomas Palmer had already produced mata, Lyons 1573, pp. 209-10.
an emblem book based on Alciati. It was probably com- 40 Alciati, 1573
(as in n. 35), p. 182.
41 A. Alciati, Emblemata ... Adiecta
pleted around 1565, but remained unpublished; the compendiosa explicati-
manuscript, today in the British Library, testifies to the one Claudij Minois... et notulis extemporariis Laurentii
author's interest in Continental neo-Latin literature. Pignorii..., Padua 1618, p. 113.
One of its 'Two Hundred Poosees' combined the wood- 42 A. Alciati, Emblemata cum commentariis
Claudii Minois
cut from a 1542 edition of Alciati with the motto ... et notis Laurentii Pignorii... Opera et vigiliis loannis
'Impossible things'. The first part more or less follows Thuilii..., Padua 1621, pp. 273-5.
Lucian, characterising the man as an Indian: 'Why 43 See Hollstein's Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings
wassheste thow the man of ynde? /Why takeste thou and Woodcuts,xxi, Amsterdam 1980, p. 179, no. 581, fig.
suche payne? /Blacke night thou mayste as sone make 581 and xxiii, 1980, p. 160, fig. 581; the print is related
bright /Thow labourste all in vayne. /A fole he is, that to a composition by Hendrick van Cleve from a series by
dothe attempte, /that he cannot attayne.' Citing other Adriaen Collaert (ibid., iv, p. 206, no. 542).
pointless activities such as cutting through the foam of a

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 189

..............
......i•!!! ........................
~ ~ ~
iiiii~~~~~~~~~~iiiiii~~~~~

.......................iii

!i•~N
tLiii
Z

iii74 Jiiiii

Fig. 60-Johannes Sadeler 1, engraving

allegofical exegesis connected with this subject.44 This is true of the text to an
engraving by Claes Jansz Visscher after an etching by Jan Joris van Vliet which re-
produces a lost painting by Rembrandt (Fig. 61); it claims that 'Here Philip washes
the Ethiopian and, recalling the prophecies, removes the blackness not of his skin
but of his soul' ('Hic lavat Aethiopem nigrum pellitque colorem, /Non cutis ast
animae, post pansa oracla Philippus').45 The relation between the colour of skin
and soul, and the impossibility of changing the one but not the other, was the
theme of a sonnet by Jacobus Revius first published in 1630.46 Here too the intro-
ductory verses seem to refer to Lucian's (Alciatis's) epigram:
Who would dare say that it is labour lost
to wash a naked Moor in the bath?47
With baptism, however,
His outer skin remained black all over
Yet in his soul he was whiter than snow.48

44 See above, n. 8, and Snowden (as in n. 11), also the edition by W. A. P. Smit, i, Amsterdam 1930, pp.
pp.
197-8. 235-6. See also Bruyn et al. (as in n. 45), pp. 102-3.
45 J. Bruyn, B. Haak, S. H. Levie, P. 47 'Wie ist die
seggen dorf dat moeyte sy verloren
J. J. van Thiel
and E. van de Wetering, RembrandtResearchProject.A /Te wasschen in het badt een naecten moriaen?'
48 'Sijn wterlijcke huyt bleef wel gelijcke swert /Maer
Corpusof RembrandtPaintings, i, The Hague etc. 1982,
pp. 38 fig. 5, 39. witter als de sneeuw wiert hy aen syner sielen.'
46 J. Revius, Over-Ysselsche
Sangen en Dichten, Deventer
1630 (not consulted), 2nd edn, Leiden 1634, p. 228; see

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190 JEAN MICHEL MASSING

4ri

ooD~f J1.1d??_U4
At. A?iwt
Drotooo mtgfoftj , ?r.'AofAj ?d t~bnt? er, I t h bql~h au-irntA ot o 5
14:e w'~IAr' ko j"a4k -t m wh , a ohvnA- 'ta''

fw!tiv~

HIC LAV TAT T1HOPEM NIGRVM PELLITQUE COLO1RXM, NON CUTIS POST PANSA ORACLA PHILl
?AST N'I"NUV PUS,

Da,
,7,4 o*u uu-44m -Ira 'w , '-v *?h f m_-dkQ Zhtlue-, m ~M
"l 6?Coo v__ .&

Fig. 61-Claes Jansz Visscher after Rembrandt, Baptismof theEthiopian,engraving.

Vienna, Graphische Sammlung, Albertina

The reference is specifically to Psalm 50 [A.V. 51], and to the notion of the black-
ness and whiteness of the soul, as found in biblical sources and in patristic texts.49 A
print by Michel Lasne after Aubin Vouet (Fig. 62) quite consciously takes up the
challenge of Alciati's emblem and presents the scene as a whitening of the black
soul. The inscription runs:
You are not washing the Ethiopian in vain. Do not stop. The water poured by the priest can
illuminate the black night.5O

Perhaps the author of the verses was struck (as any viewer of the prints must be) by
the fact that the young man being baptised by Philip has nothing Ethiopian about
his appearance; as a result, the effect of the inscription is to present the picture as a
sort of miracle of St Philip-a case of a 'successful' Ethiopian bath.
The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Western Europe saw a vogue
for illustrations of women, particularly portraits of court beauties, in the company
of a black page, who takes up an attitude suggestive of extreme admiration and
often offers his mistress roses.51 Such pages are usually elegantly dressed, yet

49 For these see notably Courtes (as in n. 8), pp. 9-31, 51 For the association of roses in 17th-century Euro-
esp. 26-8. pean art and literature with the beauty of women,
50 'Abluis Aethiopem, nec frustra. haud desine, noc- specifically 'the pinker extremities of the female form',
tem /Illustrare nigram flaminis unda potest'. This print see P. Taylor, Dutch FlowerPainting, 1600-1720, London
was published by Mariette (Paris, Bibliotheque Nation- and New Haven, Conn. 1995, pp. 57-9.
ale, Cabinet des Estampes, Da 8 fol.).

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 191
.................... ..

..... .................

..
..........

Al
'I

A ec :Io~r L~a/ae nxmpr

,iAbbas,f2171ye~a icc fru iJ1

Alaei mamrflmm:
-n
Aaiddjie PHILIREOPER

Fig. 62-Michel Lasne after Aubin Vouet, Baptism of the Ethiopian, engraving

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192 JEAN MICHEL MASSING
sometimes wear slave collars. This feature should perhaps be seen as partly symbolic
-signifying a servile devotion to the lady's white loveliness-rather than as a literal
reflection of the realities of society, even if we know of plenty of examples of rich
women who went about with black attendants.52 Whatever the case, the general in-
tention of artists who used this device was surely to underline by contrast the deli-
cate white and rosy complexions of the women portrayed. This is surely the message
of the inscription on an engraving, dated 1706, after one such picture by Hyacinthe
Rigaud (Fig. 63).5 It seems that this tradition is somehow conflated with the wash-
ing of the Ethiopian in a few paintings whose emblematic content has usually gone
unrecognised. A painting by Pierre Gobert (1662-1744) from the Kleine Sch6n-
heitsgalerie of Max Emanuel, Prince-Elector from 1679 to 1726, in the Hauptschloss
in Nymphenburg near Munich, provides a striking example (Fig. 64).54 A well
dressed lady, wearing a flowing scarf and a low-cut green gown trimmed with white
lace, holds the head of a young black page who has a slave's collar round his neck.
She prepares to wash him, wetting a cloth in the nearby fountain. The boy is so
astonished he seems almost to be about to drop the roses he has brought as the
familiar tribute to her beauty. Another painting attributed to Gobert (Fig. 65), in a
private collection, shows a lady in the same situation, this time with a lower decol-
letage which exhibits her whiteness to greater effect.55 Here too the page-again
wearing the metal collar of slavery-looks suitably surprised and appears to let fall
his basket of roses. Behind, an old serving woman, with a ruddy complexion, pours
water into the basin. Given her resemblance to the traditional procuress of genre
scenes, her action in pouring water into the basin may have sexual overtones.56 The
younger woman's bared breast supports such an idea, but it is hard to see the pre-
cise significance, and the principal meaning seems to hinge on the familiar pictorial
formula of skin contrast, as 'black best sets forth white'.57 This idea was variously
expressed by Shakespeare, for example in Romeo and Juliet, I.v.50:
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellow shows.58
After all,
Contraries being set the one against the other appear
more evident.59

52 Portraits of European women with black pages first 54 A.

Feulner, Katalog der Gemailde im Residenzmuseum
appeared in the 16th century-the earliest example is Miinchen und in Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich 1924, p.
Titian's so-called 'Laura dei Dianti'-and became in- 41, no. 166.
creasingly common in the next two centuries. See P. H. 55 This painting was sold by William Doyle Galleries,
D. Kaplan, 'Titian's Laura Dianti and the Origin of the New York, in Jan. 1989; see H. D. Weston, 'Representing
Motif of the Black Page in Portraiture', Antichita viva, the Right to Represent: The Portrait of Citizen Belley,
xxi.1, 1982, pp. 11-18, and xxi.4, pp. 10-18. For Titian's Ex-Representative of the Colonies, by A.-L. Girodet',
painting see H. E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, ii, Res. Anthropology and Aesthetics, xxvi, 1994, pp. 89-90,
London 1971, pp. 92-3, no. 24, pls 41-3. fig. 5.
53 'Sous le riant aspect de Flore, /Cette beaut6 touche 56 For such implications in Dutch art see E. de Jongh,
les coeurs, /Et par le contraste d'un More /Releve ses Zinne- en minnebeelden in de schilderkunst van de zeventiende
attraits vainqueurs. /Mais que dis-je des dons de flore? eeuw, Amsterdam 1967; also Tot Lering en Vermaak, exhib.
/Son teint augmente la fraicheur. /Et la noirceur mime cat. (Rijksmuseum), Amsterdam 1976; and Die Sprache
du More /Tire un 6clat de sa blancheur.' For this print, der Bilder Realitit und Bedeutung in der niederldndischen
a portrait of Madame de Pecoil by Simon de la Vallke, Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, exhib. cat. (Herzog Anton
published by Pierre Drevet, see C. Le Blanc, Manuel de Ulrich-Museum), Braunschweig 1978.
57 See Tilley (as in n. 7), p. 53, no. B435.
l'amateurdestampes,iv, Paris 1890, p. 90, no. 4; see also
M. Kopplin, 'Amoenitates exoticae. Exotische K6stlichkei- 58 Ibid., p. 53.
ten im Zeitalter des Barock', Exotische Welten, Europiiische 59 Ibid., p. 118, no. C630.
Phantasien, exhib. cat. (Kunstgebiaude am Schlossplatz),
Stuttgart 1987, p. 327.

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 193

ill~ C *',/c l
C•,•'•

('we A'W4 ilt*/(

f•i/I(11f

it R,
-q.'
I un Ci i 4 ~ dP/o

Fig. 63- S. de la Vall6e after Hyacinthe Rigaud, MadamedePecoiland an Admirer,

engraving, 1706

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194 JEAN MICHEL MASSING

Fig. 64-Pierre Gobert,LadyWashingherBlackSlave.Nymphenburg,Hauptschloss

In other cases paintings seem to relate more obliquely to the pictorial tradition
of the black page. An anonymous Netherlandish painting of the second half of the
seventeenth century shows a little girl holding a sponge up to the face of a fully
grown black man, whose attitude perhaps suggests that he is explaining to her the

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 195

.
.............
17
Iv
so..

AIN

Fig. 65-Attributed to Pierre Gobert, Lady WashingherBlackSlave.

Collection of R. Perraudin

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196 JEAN MICHEL MASSING

AOV

Fig. 66-Netherlandish, 17th century, Washinga BlackMan's Face.Paris, private collection

pointlessness of her effort (Fig. 66).60oThe fact that it is his face that is being washed
may simply reflect the pictorial formula used by the artist, but there might be a
reference to Erasmus's 'Aethiops non albescit' adage, where the man's face is the
specific target of vigorous washing.61A painting attributed to the Venetian Andrea
Celesti (1637-1711) shows a similar attempt, this time by a young woman, to wash
the face of a black man conveniently holding a basin of water (Fig. 67). A slightly
older white woman behind holds a parasol; it might seem that this feature was
included simply to reinforce the exotic character of the scene,62 but parasols are
often associated in portraits of the period with high-class ladies who have main-
tained the ideal white and rosy complexion, so that the introduction of one here is
particularly ironic. The attendant smiles at the beholder, inviting him to share her
amusement at the vain attempt to whiten the man's face.63Another Italian example
must have been the picture described in the testament of Cardinal Luigi Alessandro
Omodei, dated 29 March 1682 and opened on 26 April 1685: this represented a
lady and a black page, with a washing basin, and was by Pier Francesco Mola and
Fioravanti, a Roman artist who seems to have specialised in still lifes.64
60 The black and white
photograph of this painting in 1937, pp. 222-8.
63 This
the Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute bears an painting (168 x 122 cm) was in 1988 with Matt-
attribution to 'Flanders, 17th century'; it is entitled hiesen Fine Art Ltd, London.
64 See L. Spezzaferro, 'Pier Francesco Mola e il mer-
'Nagreet fillette tenant une eponge' (Paris, Collection
Trotti, 74 x 100 cm). cato artistico romano: atteggiamenti e valutazioni', Pier
61 See above, n. 16. FrancescoMola. 1612-1666, Milan 1989, p. 57: '-Un
62 For examples of this see H. Goetz, 'An Indian
quadro in tela di Imp.re con cornice dorata larga rap-
Element in 17th-Century Dutch Art', Oud Holland, liv, presentante un Moretto et una Donna, che guardano

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 197

iii.......................................................

Fig. 67-Andrea Celesti, Washinga BlackMan's Face.Whereabouts unknown

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198 JEAN MICHEL MASSING

•r
J!!~iii
"i•
rOiii~ii•ii••iiii''i
ii;•~!!ii•iiiiiiiiiiii~i~~l•~~•••AA- . .................iii
iiI•
:1i•i!l~ '!ii
~ iiiiii
,••,

'to~~iiiiiii~i!i•iiiiiiiiiiiii~iiiii~i~li~~ii~'~iiii••,•,•i!!iii'i

kv
it
iiiiiiiiiiii0 Pi-i i

- -- YO }HN ti BLAC A O
ORG

Fig. 68-Isaac Cruikshank,satiricalprint, 1795

The motif could also be applied to a political context.65 It provided the central
conceit of two satirical prints by Isaac Cruikshank. The first, 'Washing the Blacka-
moor', published by S. W. Fores on 24 July 1795, refers to the Prince of Wales's
affair with LadyJersey, one of the ladies of the Bedchamber of the Princess, who sits
in an armchair while two attendants attempt to wash her dark face (Fig. 68).66 A
miniature portrait of the Prince of Wales hangs from her neck, while the Prince
himself crouches at her feet, holding the wash-basin and encouraging the washer-
women ('Another scrub & then!! take more water'). LadyJersey wonders if her face
looks any whiter. The washerwomen have their doubts: 'This stain will remain for
ever' claims the first, while the second opines that 'You may as well attempt to re-
move the Island of Jersey to the Highest Mountain in Wales', in a rather strained

un Bacile di mo del Mola e Fioravanti.'It has recently 65 A medallion showing a black man washed
by three
been suggestedthat the pictureof 1632by Christianvan men (with the motto 'Verloore Arbeid') is found on a
Couwenberghin Strasbourg(Musde des Beaux-Arts), broadsheet published around 1720 (Op en ondergangder
showing a naked black woman appealing for help actieonisten...) against Law's banking system. See F.
againsttwo young white men, does not show a scene of Muller, De Nederlandschegeschiedenisin platen. Beredeneerde
rape but rather a variationon Aphthonius'sfable (W. beschrijvingvan Nederlandschehistorieplaten,zinneprentenen
C. Maier-Preusker, 'Christianvan Couwenbergh(1604- historischekaarten, ii, Amsterdam 1876-7, pp. 112-13,
1667). Oeuvre und Wandelungeneines hollfindischen no. 3542a.
Caravaggisten',Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, lii, 1991, pp. 66 G. Paston, Social Caricaturein the EighteenthCentury,
195-6, fig. 195 and p. 219, no. A60); this interpretation London 1905, pp. 120-1, pl. CLXXVII; M. D. George,
is, however,unconvincing, given the absence of any Catalogue of Political and Personal SatiresPreservedin the
bathing materials and the picture's obvious sexual Departmentof Prints and Drawings in the British Museum,
content. vii, London 1942, p. 186, no. 8667.

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 199

;•" -i 7.
=~~~: ..."
: -,1 . . --• -

O RI
"vAt AD orV]?ThLF?t
ODW
W'%BLCAMR?IFU

* __
........
AB0 Ei]
~aC O

Fig. 69-Isaac Cruikshank,satiricalprint, 1809

pun. Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales, identifiable from the three feathers
in her hair and the motto Ich dien, enters from the left and observes, in an attempt
at a German accent, 'It vont do she must put on anoder face'. The Princess's oppo-
sition to her rival was, however, to no avail, as Lady Jersey was dismissed only later,
after the separation between the Prince and the Princess. A print published on 27
March 1809 applied the same image to the Duke of York, referring specifically
to charges of corruption brought against him (Fig. 69).67 Once again blackness
symbolises the indelible stain of accusation. The Duke sprawls across a leaky and
overflowing tub of soapy water, inscribed 'House of Comm[ons]'. The labouring
attendants-a series of men in the role of washerwomen, evidently portraits, but so
far unidentified-have no illusions about the success of their attempt: 'I'll try to
scrub him white though I know he's Black in grain', claims the first; 'I'm afraid I
shall never make him white in this part-the more I scrub the blacker he Appears',
adds another. The same conclusion is arrived at by the 'washerwoman' who at-
tempts to clean the Duke's military coat: 'I can't get the Stain out of his Garment,
if I was to scrub for ever and a day.' The moral is given by Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle
standing at the left:
Youmaylather and washas long as you like
But you never can make a blackemorewhite.

67 See George (as in n. 66), viii, 1947, pp. 773-4, no. title of another satire which, however, does not show the
11272; and Weston (as in n. 55), pp. 89 and 91, fig. 6. bath: George, ix, 1949, p. 645, no. 12726.)
('Labour in Vain, or his Reverence Confounded' is the

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200 JEAN MICHEL MASSING
The Duke of York, however, was later acquitted. The anecdote reappeared in
George Cruikshank's Illustrationsof Time,published in 1827. This series showed dif-
ferent aspects of time-Diogenes searching in vain with a lantern for an honest
man, for example, standing for 'Time Lost'; and included an illustration of five old
women washing a black man for 'Time thrown away'.68
The motif of the washing of the Blackamoor survived through the 1800s as a
theme of popular art, as in the underglass painting of the early nineteenth century
from Florida which shows well-dressed young white ladies scrubbing a young black
man standing in a tub (Fig. 70).69 All use brooms in their effort to avoid any form of
physical contact. The image persisted into the twentieth century on British pub
signs, with the motto 'Labour in Vain', or occasionally 'Devil in a Tub'.70 In recent
decades, however, it has largely disappeared from view, as the pubs in question have
changed their names, apparently in response to liberal discomfort. In the case of
the Labour in Vain, a public house in Westergate, Sussex, the story is more com-
plex. Its name was altered early in the century under pressure from the landowners,
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who judged it inappropriate-not perhaps out of
any sensitivity to racist content, but rather because of the disreputable story that the
sign supposedly commemorated. For it was believed to show the consequence of an
illicit liaison between a colonial wife and a native, with the woman, who had re-
turned before her husband from 'the tropics', trying to scrub off the tell-tale black-
ness of the resultant offspring. 7 The pub revived its name and sign in 1927,7 when
the present double-sided scene was presumably painted: it shows the attempted
cleansing on one side and the woman's distress at the failure of her efforts on the
other. It seems to have been the invention of a convenient local anecdote, rather
than any appeal to the authority of Aesop, Erasmus or Alciati, that has sanctioned
this rare survival into the present day.71
KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

68 G. Cruikshank, Illustrations of Time, London 1827, (Upper Thames Street), London. See G. C. Williamson,
pl. 3 (see G. W. Reid, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England,
of GeorgeCruikshank,i, London 1871, p. 123, no. 1411). Wales,and Ireland, i, London 1889, respectively p. 606,
The same composition is found, as 'Labour in Vain', in no. 1106, p. 781, nos 3246, 3251 and pp. 690-1, no.
The Gallery of 140 Comicalities, London 1831, [p. 1]: see 2136; also J. Larwood and J. C. Hotten, The History of
George (as in n. 66), x, 1952, pp. 725-6, no. 15472. On Signboards,London 1866, p. 460.
pl. 3 of the Illustrations of Time, the saying 'Time was 71 See H. Scott, SecretSussex,London 1949, pp. 24-5.
made for slaves' is illustrated by a white man furiously The frontispiece to this book, showing the sign, is
whipping three blacks ('Flogging them by the Hour', is captioned 'Surprise and alarm, the boy is still black!'
the explanation given by Cruikshank). See also J. Batten in WestSussex Gazette,8 Mar. 1979. In
69 This painting, which is unpublished, measures 25.8 fact Mr Batten notes in his report that there is a proverb
x 20.9 cm. It is in the D. and J. de Menil Collection, about 'washing an Ethiop', but seems to accept the local
Houston. legend. I am most grateful to Monika Smith for drawing
70 See G.
J. Monson-Fitzjohn, Quaint Signs of Olde Inns, this example to my attention, and providing me with a
London 1926, pp. 87-8, referring to pubs in Ware, photograph, as well as copies of local news reports.
72 It was called The New Inn in the interim. See Scott
Pontypool, Shadwell and Horsebay, and implying that
he knew of many more. The examples from earlier (as in n. 71), pp. 24-5.
times are numerous, as we know from literary and ar- 73 When the pub was sold in 1987, the BognorObserver
chival sources as well as from trade tokens issued by (report of 29 Oct. 1987) pronounced the origin of the
taverns as small change. Two women washing a black name unknown, perhaps for fear of arousing offence;
man appear on 17th-century tokens from the Labour in objections had already been voiced in the local press to
Vayne, a pub in Flemish Churchyard (St Katharine's), the alleged racism of the sign. The present owner, how-
London, and on those issued by pubs of the same name ever, has the old legend set forth on a wall-panel near
in Turnmill Street (Clerkenwell) and Old Fish Street the bar.

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 WASHING THE ETHIOPIAN 201

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