Theatre of Imagined Forms

Colonial Indigenous Representation in the Paintings of Albert Eckhout

Abstract

This article examines the paintings of Albert Eckhout in the context of the Dutch occupation of Brazil, analyzing how his images transformed Indigenous peoples into a central allegorical figure within the colonial imaginary. Grounded in a circumstantial realism and an aesthetic of verisimilitude, Eckhout established a visual regime that organized territory and bodies according to classificatory principles intelligible to the European gaze. By articulating science, art, and power, his work instituted a theatre of forms in which difference was domesticated, converted into social types, and integrated into a civilizational narrative. In this process, the Indigenous figure emerges as both presence and absence, origin and erasure, revealing the constitutive ambiguity of the colonial project. The analysis argues that Eckhout’s iconography exceeds documentary representation, functioning as an epistemological device that contributed to a lasting visual tradition in the construction of Brazilian identity.