Brussels, Musées Royaux change title of a Rubens work: away with the word moro

As of last February 10, a famous work by Pieter Paul Rubens kept at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels has changed its name. It is the Four Studies of the Head of a Moor, an oil on canvas from around 1614-1616 purchased by the museum in 1890. The work, wrote art historian Joost Vander Auwera in a museum catalog, is “a very lively oil sketch, representing the head of a man in four different poses,” and is s “urely one of the most popular works by Rubens preserved in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, if not of his entire oeuvre. [...] The mastery of painting technique, fast, virtuoso and rhythmic, is evident there. The subject, so human, free from any complicated mythology or religious theme, is immediately captivating.” In viewing this work, “some are captivated by the exoticism of a man from a distant country rendered so expressive, others are won over by the dignity-filled depiction of an often discriminated member of the population, still others feel encouraged or consoled by this face imbued with a simple and manifest joy of life. Rubens himself would probably have been somewhat surprised by the enthusiasm aroused by this little masterpiece.”

Studies of this kind served for larger compositions (we find the same head, in fact, in an Adoration of the Magi). However, the Musées Royaux evidently felt that the word “mori” in the title was overly discriminatory. And to think that there are even some institutes that preserve engravings from the same work and still use the title under which the work was acquired in 1890: Têtes de nègres, or “heads of negroes,” which at the Musées des Beaux-Arts had endured until 2007 before receiving its current designation, which will now therefore undergo another change. Thus, the word “moro” will be removed and the painting will be renamed simply Four Studies of a Head, to cut any connection with the time of acquisition: in 1890, in fact, the Congo was a Belgian colony and “negroes,” as they were then called, were systematically subjected to violent abuse by Belgian settlers in Africa.

In fact, as part of the Museum in Questions campaign launched in the fall of 2021, the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts have expressed their intent to participate in the debate on current social issues. Thus, from Feb. 10 through July 30, the work will enjoy a special exhibition to explain the reasons for the change to its title. “Titles of artworks are being questioned in museums around the world,” they explain from Brussels: “the responsibility of museums to be inclusive and non-discriminatory has grown more and more as a result of social movements such as Me Too or Black Lives Matter. The Rubens work in this room, renamed for the second time since 2007, is a typical example of how a title can remind the public of a painful colonial experience. The Royal Museums share the public’s reactions and aim to engage in a policy of inclusion, based on historical facts and contexts, and thus, contribute to a scholarly-based debate.”

Pictured: Pieter Paul Rubens, Four Studies of a Head (c. 1614-1616; oil on canvas, 66 x 51 cm; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts du Belgique)

Brussels, Musées Royaux change title of a Rubens work: away with the word moro

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