Hieronymus must have been severely traumatised at some point in his life. So very disturbing tho the times were as well.

Shakespeare wrote a whole play around the subject "Othello" based on "A Moorish Captain" by Cinthio, published in 1565.
Outside of religious communities interracial relations and even marriage were rare but not really frowned upon.
It makes me laugh to see for example the queen of Sheba played on screen by Gina Lollobrigida, who went to great pain to explain how the Ethiopian queen MIGHT have been white but was none the less unable to excuse her being Italian.
(To be fair a black actress Vivica A. Fox finally did get to play Sheba in 1997)

Thanks for sharing the painting.

Interracial relationships been around for much longer and also been around in the UK Royal family.

Queen Sophie Charlotte and King Charles Stuart II. They tried to portray Queen Charlotte as white everytime they made another painting. There's an original painting in Buckingham Palace of Queen Charlotte where she's dark

[googleweblight.com]

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I'm definitely writing down the name and checking him out.

Uhh well of cause there are reasons for so many things

I've always assumed booze or narcotics played some role in his artistic vision.

This is a snippet from "The Garden of Earthly Delights". If you've never seen the whole thing, you should Google it, and give it a good look. I don't know if he was a free thinker, or else he'd just had some really bad acid trips, but this guy was a nightmare!

It is quite amazing that Hieronymus Bosch included erotic contacts between people of different races. During his lifetime the encounter with people from different "races" must still have been a rare event.