Their Sitting at Meat - Theodor de Bry

A detailed copperplate engraving by Theodor de Bry, depicting an indigenous couple at a meal, originally published in 1590.

This copperplate engraving, titled Their Sitting at Meat, is a work by the Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry. It was produced for the 1590 publication of Thomas Hariot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. The image depicts an indigenous couple from the Secotan people of North Carolina, seated on a woven mat while consuming a meal.

The composition is structured around a central vessel containing food, with the figures positioned in profile and three-quarter view. De Bry utilised precise line work to render the anatomical details of the figures, their traditional garments, and the surrounding items, which include a gourd, a fish, and maize. The background is minimal, focusing the viewer's attention on the domestic activity of the subjects.

As an engraver, de Bry worked from the watercolour drawings of John White, who had accompanied the 1585 expedition to Roanoke. While White's original drawings were intended as observational records, de Bry's engravings adapted these images for a European audience. He introduced stylistic conventions common to late sixteenth-century European printmaking, such as the specific posture and musculature of the figures, which reflect the aesthetic preferences of the period rather than purely objective documentation. This print remains a significant example of early European visual engagement with the Americas, providing insight into the methods by which information about the New World was disseminated through the medium of print during the late Renaissance.