Blackamoor (decorative arts)

Blackamoor is a type of figure and visual trope in European decorative art, typically found in works from the Early Modern period, depicting a man of sub-Saharan African descent, usually in clothing that suggests high status. Common examples of items and objects decorated in the blackamoor style include sculpture, jewellery, and furniture. Typically the sculpted figures carried something, such as candles or a tray. They were thus an exotic and lightweight variant for the "atlas" in architecture and decorative arts, especially popular in the Rococo period.

The term "blackamoor" or "black moor" was once a general term for black people in English, "formerly without depreciatory force" as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. The style is now viewed by some as racist and culturally insensitive. However, blackamoor pieces are still produced, mainly in Venice, Italy.

Jewelry and decorative arts

In jewelry, blackamoor figures usually appear in antique Venetian earrings, bracelets, cuff links, and brooches (Moretto Veneziano). Blackamoor jewelry is also traditionally produced, based on legends found in Fiume, such as earrings and brooches under the name Morčić or Moretto Fiumano.

Some contemporary craftspeople continue to make individual pieces; however, production of blackamoor jewelry is becoming more rare, due to the decorative style increasingly being viewed as problematic and offensive for its depiction of dark-skinned people as "exotic" and decorative.