Brooch of an African, German, ca. 1680-1720, silver, enamel, lacquer, pearl. H: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm). The Walters Art Museum
This enameled brooch is made in the shape of a manacled, kneeling African in rich attire. The casualness of the insensitivity is breath taking today, but it was consistent with 17th-century views on the inevitability of hierarchy as a reflection of natural law; every creature and thing had its God-given place. Slavery was an accepted institution throughout the Muslim and Christian world.