The village of Ipojuca

Almost two thirds of this painting in landscape format show a somewhat cloudy sky. To the far right of the picture, a palm rises high up into the sky. Buildings and an abbey can be seen underneath, on a small hill: presumably the village of Ipojuca and its Franciscan monastery. From there, the view is of a wide plain, whose lush green fades into the grey-white of the cloud cover on the horizon. Six people can be seen in the foreground on their way to the village, two of them balancing baskets on their heads. The artist Frans Post accompanied the Governor General of the Dutch colony in north-eastern Brazil, Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, on his expedition from 1637 to 1644. Back in Haarlem in the Netherlands, Frans Post used his drawings to paint a series of seemingly romantic Brazilian landscapes for the domestic art market, which convey an idealised image of the colony. Post often depicted the indigenous or enslaved population. Presumably what we see here in the foreground is a cluster of enslaved men and women, while a group of indigenous inhabitants are visible in the background.