The image that I chose to compare is “Indians Round a Fire.” There are distinct differences between John White’s watercolor painting and De Bry’s engraving. De Bry’s engraving is much more powerful and catches your eye immediately compared to White’s watercolor. De Bry’s engravings is definite and defined in the lines and texture that he uses to paint the people and the fire. Comparing the two fires you can see in De Bry’s painting how strong and powerful that fire is and the structure of it by the use of the lines, unlike White’s where the fire looks like it will diminish in a matter of minutes. Also, in De Bry’s painting the surroundings of the Indians like the ground and water behind them is defined and shown with ridges and lines and in White’s painting you can’t even really tell where the ground is or what the Indians are sitting on. Furthermore, the engraving helps to us see the Indians more clearly. Like the definitions of their body’s, the instruments that they are holding like the rattles, and the conversations that are taking place between one another.
The visual change may have lead Europeans to view Indians as an inferior “race” of people in the painting because in White’s watercolor, the Indians look calm and nonchalant just sitting around the fire, but in De Bry’s engraving the Indians are facing all different directions, they can’t stay still, and some look confused. Europeans could interpret this as uncivilized people who can’t follow rules and pay attention to a simple thing like sitting around a fire.
The visual change may have lead Europeans to view Indians as an inferior “race” of people in the painting because in White’s watercolor, the Indians look calm and nonchalant just sitting around the fire, but in De Bry’s engraving the Indians are facing all different directions, they can’t stay still, and some look confused. Europeans could interpret this as uncivilized people who can’t follow rules and pay attention to a simple thing like sitting around a fire.
