Native Americans lived in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 1500's.  The Timucua, a named bestowed upon these natives by Europeans, possessed a fascinating culture. When French Hugenots sailed to the "new world" in 1564 to establish the settlement of La Caroline along the St. Johns River, they brought along an artist, Jacques LeMoyne, to document the landscapes, people, flora and fauna of this new world. Although the watercolors painted by Le Moyne have been lost to history, his works were engraved and put into book form by Theodore de Bry in 1591.  Immediately upon its release, the book captured the imagination of Europe and the illustrations still serve as mankind's first recorded artistic glimpse of the appearance and lives of Florida's first people. However, modern scholarship has shown that the de Bry renderings -- while still historical treasures -- display a number of inaccuracies. Scholars have written  about the misleading portrayal of the Timucua depicted in this art and through documentary research and archaeology have made suggestions how the original Le Moyne/de Bry inaccuracies might be corrected (eg. the originals portray a 40 foot alligator with ears; mountains adjacent to the Florida saltmarsh; and many other more subtle discrepancies).

 

The mission of this Timucua Art Contest is to create excitement and interest in presenting a more authentic portrayal of the scenes depicted in the the classic Le Moyne/de Bry works, published in 1591, which up to now have served as our collective memory of Timucua culture.   Public Trust believes the enhancement of the Le Moyne/de Bry works -- realistically reinterpreted by today's skilled artists and made more historically accurate by modern scholarship -- will be a significant contribution to our understanding of the Timucua.  Public Trust seeks to identify 10 skilled artists to paint these new and improved reinterpretations of the original Le Moyne/de Bry works. The contest will further underscore the respect we have for our land's ancestors, and help us better appreciate our sense of place.

Please review the different menu items listed under Timucau Art Contest for more information on the rules, important dates, resources, and everything else related to our contest.  We llok forward to all the submissions from our participants!