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The article focuses on Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of a Black Man . Topics discussed include this essay will try to do so explicitly, drawing the consequences of treating an artifact not usually regarded in Enlightenment terms; and the portrait of a presently unidentified Black man, less as a product of than as itself productive of Enlightenment.

The article discusses the work of 18th-19th-century Swiss-British painter Henry Fuseli, focusing on his work in relation to the revival of ancient Greek tragedy in 18th-century theater as well as the late 18th-century theory of cultural pluralism. The author discusses Fuseli's drawings from contemporary English theater, including "Oedipus Cursing His Son Polynices," and suggests that they relate to actor and playwright David Garrick and the revival of the work of playwright William Shakespeare. The author discusses the relationship between Greek tragedy and Shakespeare in 18th-century theater as an analogy for antiquity and modernity. The author also discusses the role of Johann Gottfried Herder in the establishment of cultural pluralism and describes Fuseli's critique of Eurocentrism.