Styrian Table of Peoples

The Styrian Table of Peoples (Steirische Völkertafel) is an early 18th-century oil painting which shows stereotypical depictions of 10 different European peoples above a table of their purported characteristics. The painting provides an example of historic ethnic stereotypes.

Origin
The painter of the Völkertafel is unknown, as is its exact date of creation, but it is assumed to have been painted in the Styria region of Austria early 1700s. There are at least six copies, and it is not possible to tell which is the original. The Völkertafel was likely based on a 1720 engraving by Joseph Friedrich Leopold.

Of the 6 known extant copies, 3 are held at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna, and the other 3 are held at museums in Bad Aussee, Moosham and Kloster Machern.

Content and analysis
The top of the table shows 10 figures, which correspond the countries of Spain, France, Italy, Germany, England, Sweden, Poland, Hungarian, Russia and Turkey/Greece. The table shows 17 characteristics such as manners, intellect or vices and charts how the people of the 10 nations correspond to these characteristics. The descriptions are harsher on the right side of the table, with Turkey/Greece shown in the most negative light.

The table below shows the characteristics assigned to each nation in the Völkertafel, translated into English: