Le Roy d'Albion ou Nouvelle Angleterre

Seventeenth-century artists often relied more on imagination than fact in meeting the demand for representations of Indigenous Americans. This fanciful image of a fictitious “King of Albion”—the supposed ruler of New England—adapts European conventions to the portrayal of a distinctly non-European monarch. The king’s feathered headdress encircles his head like a crown, and his jewel-edged fur, gathered at the shoulders, resembles the drapery of ancient Greek statuary. The inscription below the portrait describes the king and his court as “civilized” and swift in justice, adding that they “still have some old idolatries, but nevertheless believe in the Immortality of the Soul.”