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"Michael"
by Robert Connell |
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Michael
In this portrait, Robert Connell, a frontier artist who has revived the
classic
Venetian style of painting, introduces the viewer to an intriguing
Pennsylvania
Indian from the Delaware (Lenape) tribe. Michael was the
Indian's Christian
name. In his later years, he joined a settlement of
Christian Indians run by the Moravian missionaries in Bethlehem and, in
1742, was baptized "Michael."
Moravian missionary John Heckewelder tells
us in his journal that Michael was renowned among his own people
for his bravery an prowess, and equally
dreaded by their
enemies...[He] has a most striking appearance, and could
not be viewed
without astonishment. Besides that, his body was full of scars
where he had
been struck and pierced by the arrows of the enemy, there was
not a spot to
be seen...but what was tattooed over with some drawing relative
to his
achievements, so that the whole together struck the viewer with amazement
and terror...in short, the whole of his history was here deposited...Far
from
murdering those who were defenseless or unarmed, his generosity, as
well as his courage and skill in war, was acknowledged by all.
Michael was about 80 years old when he died on July
23, 1756. One observer noted that "the serenity of Michael's countenance
when he was laid in his coffin contrasted strangely with the figures
scarified upon his face when a warrior." It is this fascinating paradox that
artist Robert Connell captures so effectively in his painting.
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