[Indigenous Brazilians pick bananas from a tree] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Indigenous Brazilians pick bananas from a tree]
Subject: Bananas; Indigenous peoples – Food – South America; Bow and arrow; Indigenous peoples – Brazil
Period: 1550-1600;
Geographic: Rio de Janeiro; Brazil; Antwerp; South America; Belgium; Spanish Netherlands; Fort Coligny
Description: Three Indigenous people, two men and a woman, pick bananas from a tree and place the fruit in a basket that the woman carries on her back. Two birds swoop down and take fruit from the tree, and a third bird has been shot with an arrow. A bow and arrows rests on the ground behind the man standing on the left and the two men wear feathered headdresses. Bananas were introduced to Brazil by the Portuguese in the early 16th century. This illustration is a simplified and mirrored version of the one found on page 62 verso of Paris, 1557.
Image Creator: Arnaud Nicolai (Woodcutter); Christophe Plantin (Christoffel Plantijn) (Printer)
Type: StillImage; Woodcut
Identifier: mta:23405
Language: fre
Source Name: Les Singvlaritez de la France Antarctique, avtrement nommée Amerique, & de plusieurs Terres & Isles decouuertes de nostre temps
Parent Collection: 1558 Antwerp
Image: mta_23405_OBJ.png