Diorama of a Du, Dance Celebration on the Plantation, Gerrit Schouten, 1830 Canvas Print
The wooden cabinet has an ascending bottom and inside a curved back and top. The back wall is covered with painted paper with a forest and a blue sky with white clouds. The inside of the sides are also equipped with blue and white clouds. The plastic performance consists of a small hut on the left in the background and a large hut with dancing figures in the middle. The performance depicts a performance of a du. These (dance) communities held a party a few times a year, in which performances were given that often had a socially critical charge. In the city there were several du's, who competed with each other to give the most beautiful performance. Schouten has displayed a party on a plantation. The dance tent is built of four uprights on either side connected by five horizontal bars. The sides of the cabin are open. In the back is a kind of balustrade that separates the space from the outdoor space with the heives of the enslaved people. The sloping roof of pina leaf rests on beams erected from the crossbars. In the hut there is therefore a large open space. On the left four male musicians. The first is a man playing a flute, the loango tou-tou. He wears a light-colored and striped robe. To his right a man playing a big drum, like the man at an angle behind him. The fourth musician sits on a stool and plays a kwakwabangi with two sticks. At the centre of the performance, three women and a man dance. The woman closest to the musicians is probably the anchor, the narrator who explains the performance to the audience. She was the central figure of the du (= company and the piece). Fulfilling the role of anchoring was honorable and loved. The anchor is dressed in a long pleated skirt, over which she has draped another cloth (pangi). She wears a headscarf. She wears bracelets, necklaces and earrings. In her hands she holds a cloth. To the right of the anchor two women dance on a similarly, are dressed, although the decorative motifs differ from the canvases. To the right of the women a man dances, also with a cloth in his hands. On the far right is a group of three men. On a couch sits a man who seems to belong to the dancers. Portrait a man in a costume consisting of red pants and a red long-length coat, a white shirt, white stockings and black shoes. He is the only figure wearing shoes. In his left hand he holds a stick with a silver button. In the other hand, he holds a handkerchief. In front of him on the ground are a stone jug, a glass bottle and a glass. This figure probably played the role of king or in any case of an authority figure. This red captain's skirt is probably a specimen that is given by the Dutch government to the authorities in the interior was donated and that has become a symbol of authority. Next to the 'king' is a hunter. He wears a brown shirt with long sleeves. A weitas with a long belt hangs around his shoulder and over the shoulder is a gun that he holds with one hand. In the other hand, he holds a long knife. Behind him is a bench.
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