ABSTRACT
This chapter examines José Conrado Rosa’s painting of Queen Maria I’s dwarves as the record of a colonial collection. It interrogates how the practice of collecting humans brought the institution of slavery to the very heart of the Portuguese court under the guise of entertainment and scientific study. Rosa’s nuptial masquerade allows us a glimpse into who was afforded humanity in the Portuguese Atlantic colonial world and speaks to how slavery played out as pantomime in the Queen’s personal circle.
