Theodor de Bry, German, born Liege, - Nigritae in Scrutandis Venis Metallicis-ab Hispanis in Insulas.... (from book, - 1595 - T-Shirt

This copperplate engraving by Theodor de Bry, published in 1595, shows enslaved African miners working under Spanish overseers at a mountain mine in the Americas.

Visual Elements & Composition

Sepia cream fills most of the plate, with dark brown ink describing the figures, rock, and palm trees, and pale parchment at the margins. The scene is dense with fine parallel hatching. Mine workers wash and sift ore at the mountainside, cave openings sit in the rock, and a thatched shelter holds a seated overseer with attendants. The Latin title runs across the top, NIGRITAE IN SCRVTANDIS VENIS METALLICIS, with the plate number 37 set in the corner.

Meaning & Symbolism

The engraving records forced labour in the early Spanish colonies, where Indigenous and African workers were driven through the extraction of metals. The title names the Nigritae, the enslaved Africans brought to the Spanish islands. De Bry was a German-born engraver, goldsmith, and publisher, and this print belongs to his Grands Voyages, a major illustrated series that shaped how Europeans pictured the Americas and Asia through the late Renaissance. The subject is colonial wealth and the human cost that produced it.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee carries this plate across the chest, where its crowded lines read best at arm's length and the mine scene stays whole rather than cropped. The sepia tones suit the sober mood of the original, and the Latin title gives the wearer a reason to look closer at the figures and the ore they are working.