Gitanas - History Lab

The fortune teller of Buenaventura

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:28 +0000

Jan Cossiers (1600-1671), a painter of Flemish origin, produced several versions of the same subject of the gypsy fortune-teller. The present situation can be traced back to the two paintings on the same theme by Caravaggio (1571-1610) at the end of the 16th century, but with a more complex scheme involving various figures. In this image, a languid, confident-looking boy has allowed himself to be persuaded to be read by a gypsy woman with two children in tow, who uses a second to steal his hand. The exuberant and even luxurious costumes of the gypsies of Nicolas Regnier (1591-1667) or Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) have been dispelled here, leaving room for ragged clothes at the ends, this gives them a ragged appearance that can be explained by the demographic reality and the poverty that plagued much of Europe in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), but which also finds its raison d’être in the implementation of harsh anti-Gypsy legislation, which classified them as marginalised and even criminal beings. Despite this, such circumstances do not prevent the women in Cossiers’s work from wearing one of the most striking and unique elements of their clothing, the bern, that circular hat with a wicker frame made by interweaving different coloured fabrics. The scene is completed by two other figures, namely a girl with her hand held out in a gesture of silence and a large-mustached gypsy wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a sword in his hand. This leaves open the possibility that we are dealing with a group in which everyone, through their gestures and movements, is linked to the action.

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Margaret Finch, Queen of the Norwood Gypsies

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:28 +0000

Gypsies arrived in the British Isles between 1430 and 1440, in the first wave to invade Europe, and almost immediately they were vigorously harassed through legislation, threats and punishment. However, their situation changed around the 17th century and since then the Gypsies have lived in relative tranquillity in various clans. Although it is not common to find Gypsies with their own name, in England in the middle years of the 18th century, one Gypsy, Margaret Finch, was very well known. There are engravings of her with a legend at the bottom where she is called “Queen of the Norwood Gypsies” and is said to be 108 years old. She wears a turban, a blanket and has her legs folded across her chest, a position so common for her that at the end of her life she was unable to stand up. She smokes a long pipe, receives the company and affection of two dogs and has at her feet a cup intended to receive alms or payment for her predictions. It was in itself a spectacle in which people could contemplate, present and conceptualised, one of the existing images of the gypsy imaginary: that of the deformed and ungraceful old gypsy witch.

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Landscape with gypsies

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:28 +0000

The first Gypsies arrived in Spain at the beginning of the 15th century. Crossing the Pyrenees, they arrived on the peninsula in the form of small bands made up of men, women and children. In 1425, Alfonso V of Aragon granted a group led by Don Juan de Egipto Menor a permit, allowing them to travel through the monarch’s territory for a period of three months. The name ‘Egypt Minor’ was used in the Middle Ages to refer to the present-day area of Cyprus and Syria; since the first Gypsy settlers to arrive in Spain used this name, it can be assumed that they all came from the same place. Towards the second half of the 15th century, another significant group arrived across the Mediterranean, which was nicknamed “Grecians”, as they were believed to be from there. These groups of gypsies justified their journey by presenting themselves as pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela, in order to atone for their sins. After an initial warm welcome, in which they were treated with benevolence due to their status as penitent travellers, a series of legal measures against them soon began with the aim of controlling them and making them similar to the rest of the Spaniards. The first measure, issued by the Catholic Monarchs in 1499, ordered the expulsion from the kingdom of all Gypsies who were not subject to any trade and lived nomadically. The anti-Gypsy legislation enacted by the following monarchs was practically similar until 1633, when Philip IV annulled the expulsion decree and a period of legal integration of the minority prevailed until 1793. Finally, under Charles III, the Gypsies began to be slowly accepted by the majority society when it was declared that they “did not come from an infectious root” and that, consequently, they could take up any occupation.

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The Bonaventure

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000

Caravaggio (1571-1610) executed around 1595 a forerunner of genre painting, The Bonaventure. Painted for Alessandro Vittrice and now in the Musée du Louvre (Paris), it depicts two half-length figures in an indeterminate location. There is no indication of where the action is taking place, the scene being illuminated only by a light from the left that falls on the figures: a young man of distinguished appearance wearing a feathered hat and a gypsy woman, recognisable as such by her coppery skin, turban knotted under her chin, black hair and cape draped over one of her shoulders, as well as by the fact that she is engaged in the activity that gives the painting its title. Good fortune was a widespread practice in royal courts during the 16th and 17th centuries and was often complemented by astrology, which had been in vogue along with horoscopes since the late Middle Ages. It was also reinforced by the use of the tarot, a deck of 78 cards depicting various figures, which originated in northern Italy in the first half of the 15th century. In 1781, Antoine Court de Gébelin reasoned that the tarot came from Egypt, which quickly led people to associate card prediction with the Gypsies, as the Egyptian origin of this ethnic group had been a widespread and accepted belief until well into the 18th century. Gébelin’s theory was exposed to various distortions in the following centuries by authors such as Boiteau d’Ambly, Vaillant and Taylor, who still maintained that the Gypsies were the first connoisseurs and therefore disseminators of cartomancy.

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Ludicrum chiromanticum Praetorii

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000

Chiromancy or fortune-telling was under suspicion until the 15th century, as it was considered a pseudo-science more suited to charlatans; nevertheless, from 1500 it became extremely popular and it was not long before the first treatises were published around the first quarter of the century, including Patricio Tricasso’s La quiromancia, which was republished during the following two centuries due to its notable success. Even more famous was the book by the Jesuit theologian Martín Antonio del Río (1551-1608) entitled Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex, in which he attributed to gypsy women the speciality of reading hands for divinatory purposes. Towards the middle of the 17th century and towards the end of the century, other treatises such as La Chiromance Royale et Nouvelle by Adrian Sicler, La Chiromance, La Physionomie et la Geomance by Peruchio or Les Ouvres by Jean Belot, in which he disserted on fortune-telling and physiognomy, among other disciplines, would become widespread. Although the pretensions of these treatises were scientific, or at least sought to lend a certain credibility to these practices, there were also those who considered them to be superstition. This is the case of Johannes Praetorius and his Ludicrum chiromanticum Praetorii, whose first pages reproduce an illustration in which some women (probably gypsies, as one of them is carrying her child in her cloak, as was customary, and because they are all barefoot) say good fortune to a man while a child takes advantage of the situation to rob him. Torreblanca must have had a similar opinion of gypsies, since in his treatise De Magia published in 1678 he said that palm reading was a practice of which “the women of that mob of lost and unfaithful people whom the Italians call Cingari, the Latins call Egyptians and we call gypsies” took advantage.

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The gypsies on the move: the rearguard

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000

The series of four etchings by Jacques Callot (1592-1635) stands out in the iconography of the wandering life of the gypsies. It is known as Les Bohémiens and was published between 1621 and 1625. The first print is entitled The Gypsies on the March: The Rearguard, and offers a warlike vision of the male Gypsies. This is not the skilled gypsy who works with metal or the shaman who deals with animals, but the fully armed professional warrior who offers himself as a mercenary. They wear jackets, high soft boots and wide-brimmed hats with feathers. Like so many of them, he travels with his family, duly accommodated in a wagon with spoked wheels that largely solved their housing problem. They carried blankets, rugs, barrels, clothes and other kitchen utensils. The image is also a reminder that the Gypsy people are actually made up of many different tribal-like groups that can properly be considered as clans. The leadership they know almost always refers to an older person who is usually, but not always, a man. This picture shows three generations of gypsies, the most comfortable place being for the elders. An old man with no military attributes, perhaps the patriarch, drives the cart mounted on a penco. The oldest woman rides in the carriage while the others are divided up: some on old nags, others on donkeys and the rest, even if they are pregnant, walk. Some of the women are covered with striped cloaks and all are barefoot, surrounded and embraced by countless children on their backs, on their laps or on their chests. The little ones carry animals in their arms, have learned to walk barefoot and are busy playing, either with their father’s hat or some utensil on their heads. The couplet that can be read at the top of the engraving limits itself to saying indulgently what they are, poor beggars, and to making a sceptical statement about what is expected of them, future promises, good fortune: “These poor beggars laden with good fortune/bring nothing but future things”.

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Cingara orientale

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000

Around 1590 Cesare Vecellio (1521-1601) published in Venice one of the best-known works on Cinquecento costume, entitled De gli habiti antichi, et moderni di diverse parti del mondo. The two-volume volume, illustrated with engravings by Christoph Krieger, contains representative costumes from Europe, Asia and Africa, together with extensive commentaries that provide detailed information on the costume, the place of origin of the people and their customs. Among the pages the author devotes to Asia, with the inhabitants of India, is the Gypsy woman (cingara orientale). What stands out about her is the hat that covers her head, an element that Vecellio calls a “crown” in the original Italian text but which is called a bern in Gypsy women’s clothing. This consists of several wide ribbons wound or intertwined on a wide and more or less rigid base, which could sometimes be made of wicker or even wood. The use of this headdress does not seem to correspond to any kind of social or civil category, but rather it is possible that it was an element of protection for both women and children, useful against the rain or the sun, which they would have to face as a nomadic group constantly exposed to the inclemency of the weather. This female attire was complemented by the use of sackcloth over the body and cloaks over the shoulders, which often made it easier to carry children.

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Gypsy wedding feast

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000

In this work by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) we see a gypsy celebration with a chaotic appearance: the characters eat and drink without moderation and what falls to the ground is devoured by dogs. There is no lack of music at this joyous gathering, played on harp and lute. This, along with dancing, has been one of the occupations of the gypsy people. Some of the most truthful testimonies date back to the end of the 15th century, and are recorded in the account register of Queen Beatriz de Aragón y Chiaromonte, which reflects the payment to several gypsy musicians in exchange for playing for her. In Spain, Gypsies participated with their dances in important local festivities, such as Corpus Christi, or in trade fairs and festivals in honour of patron saints. In addition to the lute, the Gypsy has always been associated with another instrument, the violin. Numerous legends attribute the creation of this instrument to the Gypsies, and the French gypsyologist Clébert’s account is particularly striking: the first violin was made by a Gypsy with hair given to him by the fairy queen Mautya, protector of the poor.

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Recua and gypsies in a forest

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:19 +0000

This oil on copper by the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder dates from the early 16th century, when his views, forests and panoramic landscapes became more realistic and his work is rich in details of great technical quality. Throughout the 17th century nature had become the ideal setting for the depiction of gypsies, a wandering group that had been moving around Europe since the early 1400s. Brueghel depicts the subject by depicting a lush forest in the foreground, to the left of which opens diagonally into a wide valley painted in blue. The gypsy women are strategically positioned on a path of obligatory passage that allows them to approach passers-by and their wares. The one seated with the child in her arms covers her head with a bern, a circular hat made of a wicker base and interwoven fabrics, which was very characteristic of Gypsy women’s clothing until the mid-17th century. The rest of the women wear a simple scarf tied around their heads. Although Gypsy women were usually barefoot, Brueghel depicted them wearing shoes, with the exception of the boy who walks without shoes. Several of them carry walking sticks to help them on their way.

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