Women and Mistresses of the King of Tuban de Bry, Johann Theodor de Bry, 1601

The harem and the duck nesting place of the king of tuban this illustration does not follow the chronology of the travel account. After all, here we are back in the village of tuban, on the east coast of java, where the dutch put in en route from bantam to the maluku islands. At the top left we see a small building where the bedrooms of the king's wives are located. If you look closely, to the right of the letter b you see a figure slipping through the canvas. To the right of this structure, near the letters c, d and e, are the king's concubines, three hundred in total according to the travel account. A few dutchmen look at the seated group of women. In the foreground of the illustration, near the letter a, we see the duck cage. The ducks are somewhat larger than the dutch variety, and mostly white. Title: women and mistresses of the king of tuban. Text: finally the king showed the dutch the bedchamber in which his wives which were four were with whom he did plenty of talking in front of the dutch marked with a. B. The king's mistresses split up in different locations which were almost three hundred. D. A water pond or pool/ inside the king's special water birds: which are similar to our ducks but just slightly bigger. They built a roof over this pool/ to protect them from the sun as you can see in this illustration. Date: 1601.