The marvelous meal of the Indians.

Some of the first images of Native Americans in the New World were captured in La Historia del Mondo Nuovo di M. Girolamo Benzoni Milanese, Venetia, 1565. Most of the images are of everyday life in South America (when they don’t depict the violence of the Spanish against the natives – a violence that, while based in truth, was exaggerated by Benzoni in an attempt to swing public opinion against the aggressive colonization of the Spanish) and many depict eating, fishing, and food gathering. Over the next few weeks I’ll scatter some of the more striking images on cruditas.

Fishermen - navigating in a north wind.