Bodmer_Publication

VIG. XIX «BLACKFOOT INDIANER ZU PFERD»
“A BLACKFOOT INDIAN ON HORSE-BACK”
This repertoire also relates to the treatment of facial features (“lordly”) and of
the skin (“velvety”) as many tableaux go to show. A splendid example is the pagelike
young Assiniboin (Tab. 32) and (among the watercolors) young Sih-Sä – images
that are directly comparable to pictures of European pages. What manifests itself
here is, among other things, a tradition of androgynous representation of young
men that connects nobility with the crossing of gender boundaries.
The strategy of nobilitation is employed by Bodmer with such sophistication
that he does not simply produce one “noble savage” after the other. The expression
of the individuality of those represented, too, absolves these images from the suspicion
of being mere clichés or stereotypes. Similarly, individualization modifies
the criterion of the characteristic that apparently was at work, too, in the decision
which sketches were to be used for the prints. Among the sketches from the Plains
there are again several portraits that patently did not fulfill one criterion or the
other; in other words, they were so individualized that they appeared insufficiently
noble and / or characteristic.
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