Albert Eckhout, Series of Eight Figures

One of the eight paintings by Eckhout reveals how he encoded racial differences among the colony's inhabitants. Four life-size male-female pairings represent different cultural or ethnic groups in Eckhout's collection. Eckhout had previously collaborated with scientists on projects, but the visual language of these massive oil paintings is that of good art scientific presentation. Eckhout communicates each group's moral and cultural stereotypes. Scientists now acknowledge that the concept of distinct people's races is socially produced rather than genetically grounded. Although classification in Western culture has a lengthy history, the hue of one's skin had no bearing on the outcome until Eckhout's series of paintings. Ethnic groups were formerly defined by their cultural traits (Zimmerman). When categorizing the inhabitants of Brazil, Eckhout pays particular emphasis to skin tone and countenance.