Race Matters: Black Andromeda in the Renaissance and in Contemporary Whitewashing

Abstract

Current debates about erasure and action in relation to race highlight the need for art historians to be vigilant about how we describe and analyze representations of non-Europeans. The Ethiopian princess Andromeda from ancient mythology is a notable example. The textual trail implying that Andromeda was black begins in now-lost Greek plays from the fifth century BCE that unequivocally described the character as Ethiopian, and later texts adduced below continued that