The National Gallery in Prague houses a drawing by an Upper Rhine master depicting four figures and bearing the inscription: Zigeuner – Heiden – Turken, in English ‘Gypsies – Pagans – Turks’.
During the fifteenth century Roma arrived in Central and Western Europe via the Balkans and Greece. Prior to that, after they had left their country of origin – India – they migrated to the regions of the Near East and Asia Minor, including Turkey. They were called ‘Zigeuner’, ‘Zingar’, ‘Tsigan’ etc. Sometimes these European newcomers shocked the local inhabitants with their ‘indecent clothes’. Contemporary chronicles depicted their clothes, which corresponded with a woman in the drawing. But are the rest in the group Turks only? Who are the others? Why did the author call them ‘Gypsies – Pagans – Turks’? The cultural–historical background of the drawing helps to understand the scene in which it is set. We can also find connections with some other contemporary illustrations, mainly with the famous travel book Peregrination in Terram Sanctam by Bernhard von Breydenbach of 1486. By comparing other depictions of Roma people from the fifteenth century we can suggest the solution.