Day 11: Early Modern Black Voyagers🧶
This colorway is inspired by an anonymous Black nobleman depicted in "Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbour," a Dutch painting by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683), c. 1650. The term “Moor” in premodern Europe was not a fixed or singular identity: it
#yarnsky
1/6
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
Day 10: Black Warriors in the East 🧶
The Darabname reminds us that the medieval & early modern world was vast, interconnected, & vividly imagined far beyond Europe. Produced in Mughal India in the late sixteenth century, this illustrated epic re-tells Persian heroic history
1/6
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 9: Black Friars 🧶
Not all Black figures in medieval European art are symbolic, allegorical, or exoticized. Some are simply there bc Black people were there.
In the image from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (c. 1416), 3 Black monks appear in a scene of
1/7
#yarnsky #yarnmarket
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 8: Diego Bemba 🧶
This colorway turns to a figure whose presence in the historical record is both rare & quietly powerful: Diego Bemba, a Kongolese aristocrat from Soyo (in what is now the DRC & Angola), painted in the mid-17th century.
It is exceptionally uncommon to know the
1/8
#yarnsky
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 7: Ira Aldridge 🧶
Ira Aldridge (1807–1867) was a groundbreaking Black Shakespearean actor whose career reshaped European stages in the 19th century. Born in New York, Aldridge was barred from most theatrical opportunities in the US by racist laws & customs
1/ 7
#yarnsky #handdyedyarn
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 6: Black Bohemian Figure 🧶
This colorway is inspired by a Black figure depicted in an early 15th-cent Bohemian astrological ms from the court of King Wenceslaus IV. The figure is not identified as a specific historical person, but their presence is nonetheless meaningful.
1/7
#yarnsky
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 5: Portrait of a Young Woman 🧶
Today’s colorway is inspired by a late 18th-cent "Portrait of a Young Woman." The sitter’s name & life remain undocumented, as is often the case for Black sitters in 18th-century European portraiture. What survives instead her presence, rendered
1/5
#yarnsky
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 4: Maternal Rainforest
This is a brand new colorway in time for #BlackHistoryMonth.
It's inspired by a 17th-century allegorical image of a Black woman representing the continent of Africa, part of a series of 4 baroque murals (in Prague) personifying the known continents
🧶#yarnsky
1/7
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 3: Young Lady with the Orange Blossom (1722/23)
Titled "Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom," the early 18th cent. painting offers a rare & striking image of a Black woman rendered with dignity, softness, & presence. The sitter is depicted with a lighter complexion, 🧶
1/6
#yarnsky
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
Day 2: John Blanke 🧶
John Blanke was a Black trumpeter at the Tudor court, best known from the Westminster Tournament Roll of 1511, commissioned during the reign of Henry VIII. Blanke appears twice in the ms & is shown wearing the same livery
1/
#BHM #yarnsky #yarnmarket #blackhistorymonth
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
#BHM Day 1: "Alchitrof, the Ethiopian Emperor.” 🧶
Alchitrof is said to have ruled in the 16th-cent & made contact w/ the Portuguese. Records state that he was known for his bravery & his fight against the Portuguese invasion of his territory.
1/
#yarnsky #blackhistory #handdyedyarn
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
It's #BlackHistoryMonth so you know what time it is? Time for a month long thread/post on a different figure and their colorway each day. Stay tuned, learn lots, embrace history, and happy crafting! 🧶
#yarnsky #yarnmarket #handdyedyarn
