Rosewood lent itself admirably to carving African figures, too, as shown by a delicately modeled German figure of a "Black Female Nude" (1600-10) that suggests an African-inspired trope on the ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of "Crouching Aphrodite, " versions of which had been engraved by the early 16th century.

WSJ: Less Familiar Faces | Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe | Princeton University Art Museum | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer