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- Convenors:
-
Giorgio Riello
(University of Warwick)
Zoltán Biedermann (University College London)
Luca Molà (European University Institute)
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- Location:
- Multiusos 3, Edifício I&D, Piso 4
- Start time:
- 17 July, 2015 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
This panel considers the role played by art and material culture in early modern diplomatic relations. It examines the ways material goods shaped political exchanges, and how such exchanges influenced the global production and circulation of art and material culture between Asia and Europe.
Long Abstract:
Whilst much has been written about the circulation of artistic objects and luxuries in the early modern world, little attention has so far been paid to the specificities involved in the exchange of diplomatic gifts. The questions that this panel expects to address through a series of innovative papers focusing on Europe and Asia are thus manifold: what made an object worthy of being gifted in the early modern period, how was the value of diplomatic gifts established in complex cross-cultural settings, who were the people in charge of making, chosing, carrying and receiving gifts, and how do we even know that any specific object served a diplomatic purpose at all? The papers selected explore these and other challenging questions through a number of case studies chosen from European and Asia contexts, generally - though not always - involving encounters between representatives of the two continents. We expect colourful presentations and lively discussions that will help us define the fundamentals of a freshly emerging subfield of historical and art historical enquiry.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Zoltán Biedermann (University College London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the blurry intersection between the worlds of gifts and of commodities by focusing on objects from Sri Lanka in the Portuguese Empire.
Paper long abstract:
"Gifts" have been theorised as objects contrasting in a variety of ways with "commodities". Their artistic and material value may be beyond anything that is available on the market, their symbolic value escapes quantification per definitionem, they cannot be transactioned freely, etc. Such generalisations do, however, carry risks of simplification and even tautology. The paper will explore some of the problems thus posed by examining a set of Sri Lankan ivories brought to Europe by the Portuguese.
Giorgio Riello (University of Warwick)
Paper short abstract:
In 1686 the ambassadors of the King of Siam were received by Louis XIV of France. This paper considers the role played by Siamese gifts and shows how this was just one of a series of exchanges of embassies, and how the gifts structured a mutual but asymmetrical relationship between France and Siam
Paper long abstract:
In September 1686, the ambassadors of the King of Siam were received with great honour by Louis XIV of France. This paper considers the nature and role played by Siamese gifts and shows how this was just one of a series of mutual exchanges of embassies and gifts. This paper shows how the gifts structured a a mutual - though asymmetrical - relationship between France and Siam.
Luca Molà (European University Institute)
Paper short abstract:
The essay analyses the diplomatic gifts that the Republic of Venice sent to the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This paper argues that Venetian shipments of luxury goods produced by the city's industries knew an acceleration in the second half of the sixteenth century
Paper long abstract:
The essay analyzises the diplomatic gifts that the Republic of Venice sent to the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Based on a tradition going back to the early expansion of the Turks in the Mediterranean and the Balkans, the Venetian shipments of highly prized luxury goods produced by the city's industries knew a progressive acceleration in the second half of the sixteenth century. Silk fabrics soon took the lead as the most appreciated gifts, followed by glass, mirrors, woolen cloth, clocks and a range of other items, frequently mixed together. At the centre of this diplomatic exchange was not only the court of the Sultan and his relatives and Vizirs in Istanbul, but also a complex network of high and medium rank officers throughout the various regions of the Empire, to the point that by the end of the century these gifts became a sort of disguised tribute. In order to satisfy the continuous requests for original objects coming from the Ottoman court, from the 1580s onward the government of Venice launched public competions among skilled craftsmen with the request of inventing procedures that would allow the production of new goods, thus pushing forward the technical boundaries of the Venetian artisans. In conclusion, diplomatic gifts acted as a drinving force for technological innovation.
Yusen Yu (University of Heidelberg)
Paper short abstract:
This essay discusses the gift exchange bettween Timurid Persia and Ming China during the fifteenth century, with an focus on the trancultural phenomenon of sending precious animals as diplomatic gifts in the early modern Eurasia.
Paper long abstract:
This essay discusses the gift exchange between Timurid Persia and Ming China during the fifteenth century, with a focus on the transcultural phenomenon of sending precious animals as diplomatic gifts in the early modern Eurasia. Since the fall of the Ilkhanids in the 1330s, Iran and Central Asia witnessed a renewed frequency of exchanges between Timurid dynasty (ca. 1370-1507) and Ming China (1368-1644). Sources of both sides record numerous diplomatic exchanges: Chinese missions reached Samarqand, Herat, Shiraz, Isfahan and Hormuz, while Timurid embassies traveled through the oasis towns of Central Asia to the imperial courts at Nanjing and Beijing. Among all the diplomatic gifts exchanged between Persia and China, precious animals played a remarkable part. Both courts in Persia and China were keen on collecting exotic animals in their royal gardens. For example, while precious Persian horses were always the favorite gifts for Chinese courts, Chinese Emperor Yongle also sent back hawks to Timurid Sultan Shahrukh as a signal of friendship. Moreover, these exotic animals became subjects of painting in both sides, and even the animal painting itself functioned again as precious gifts, which survive today in several Persianate albums (muraqqa) in Topkapi Library. This essay seeks to show how various exotic animals from foreign lands were viewed and conceived in the courts of Timurid Persia and Ming China.
Maria João Ferreira (CHAM)
Paper short abstract:
In 1611 a Chinese textile was included in the shopping list of gifts to buy in India for Shah Abbas I. This paper aims to find out what led the Portuguese to elect Chinese textiles as diplomatic gifts to the Safavid Iran ruler and its consequences in the Portuguese trade of Persian and Chinese silk.
Paper long abstract:
In 1611 a Chinese embroidered ensemble was included in the shopping list of gifts to buy in India for Shah Abbas I, the greatest ruler of the Safavid Iran. Their mention in the royal instructions sent to D. Jerónimo de Azevedo, Viceroy of India, calls our attention to various aspects related to the circulation of Chinese textiles through Portuguese trade networks in Asia and between Asia and Europe in Early Modern world. This is the case of the circuits involved, but also the status and meaning that shapes these objects. To the point of the Crown regularly exhibit or take them as gifts within the Portuguese diplomatic contacts and missions held both in Portugal and abroad.
Under the then ongoing diplomatic relations between Portugal and Safavid Iran these aspects gain greater projection: while Portugal tried to maintain at all costs its solid position in the Persian Gulf area, simultaneously, Abbas I, the emperor of one of the most important country silk producers in the world sought new outlets to get products to Western markets. This paper aims to find out what led the Portuguese Crown to elect the Chinese textiles as diplomatic gifts under these circunstances and the consequences of this strategy in the Portuguese trade of Persian and Chinese silk.
Ana Moás (FCSH-UNL)
Paper short abstract:
As governor of Portuguese India (1509-1515), Albuquerque used a coherent political strategy in which diplomacy always preceded war. This paper examines how the need for unexpected diplomatic exchanges influenced the selection of gifts and what meanings where imbued in that material culture.
Paper long abstract:
Although Albuquerque is mostly known for his military deeds, his letters to King Manuel suggest that he also devised a coherent diplomatic strategy in India during his term as governor (1509-1515). This was a moment when there was a marked quickening of pace in Portuguese-Indian relations. Given the limited knowledge available on the Asian reality and in the absence of instructions from Portugal, the governor was forced to develop himself a rapid understanding of the local practices.
This paper examines the policies of gift-giving in the context of the first contacts between Portugal and the Indian states through the assessment of the gifts given and received by Afonso de Albuquerque and the analysis of the staging of gift exchange situations. It attempts to identify the various protagonists in the selection of the gifts given as well as analyze how the gifts that Albuquerque received were redistributed or converted into other gifts. This paper argues that these gifts are paramount to the understanding of the Portuguese perception of Asian material culture in the early 16th century; it will also contribute to the discussion of the development of new policy of gift-giving, specific to the new geography in which Albuquerque was acting.
Manfredi Merluzzi (Università Roma Tre) Flavia Tudini (Roma Tre)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focus on Diplomatic gift during the imperial expansion of the Spanish Monarchy, they were an instrument of reciprocal representation but construed also a way of circulation for different commodities through the different areas of the Spanish Empire.
Paper long abstract:
Through the analysis of different study cases, this paper focus on the broad influence of the culture, material and immaterial, in the Spanish diplomatic acting in XVI-XVII century. Material cultural traits are a concrete evidence of the different cultures as wells as mirror of their tastes, values, economics and productive skills. During the imperial expansion of the Spanish Monarchy, Diplomatic gifts were an instrument of reciprocal representation but construed also a way of circulation for different commodities through the different areas of the Spanish Empire
Margareth Gonçalves (UFRRJ)
Paper short abstract:
Dr Margareth de Almeida Gonçalves (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro) Focusing on the East India Congregation of the order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, this paper explores the complexity of gift economy in seventeenth century Safavid Iran.
Paper long abstract:
The extensive lexicon of "giving" in zones of cultural flow exposes mechanisms of civilazational translations which intensify encounters crossed by tensions and conflicts. In the Modern Age, the Christian religious orders occupied spaces as active actors in the diplomatic game and the missionary activity in the East. We highlight that the physical and imaginary topography of Iran, during the Safavid empire, in the reign of Shah Abbas I, in the first decade of the 17th century, formed a privileged locus of interconnections between Eastern eminent Islamic empires and the Western Papacy, Catholic monarchies and Christian religious orders. In this paper, the approach of the complexity of the forms of "giving" is stressed in this context, through the presence of the East India Congregation of the order of the Hermits of St Augustine in the relations with Sha Abbas court and the Armenian church. The focus will be on the practices of "giving" in the context of the Augustinian activity in the diplomatic scenario in Persia (1602-1615). The careful investigation of the multiple meanings of "giving" refers to the diversity of classificatory grids which shapes the meaning of material exchanges of objects. In a varied set of documentations about the augustinians from Portugal, there is a diversity of terms for the act of "giving: "sagoate", "presente", "esmola", "favores", "dinheiro". Objects as gifts, objects as commodities, what do they transmit, what kind of knowledge do they refer to? The materiality of exchange objects displays forms of imagination that pervade the cultural displacements.
Michael Polczynski (Georgetown University)
Paper short abstract:
THIS PAPER tracks diplomatic networks and the exchange of goods between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and how an “Ottomanized” national dress became a tool for Europe's largest republican citizenry in their struggle against monarchical power.
Paper long abstract:
AT ITS height during the 17th century, the frontier shared by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire stretched 1,200 kilometers from the Pontic Steppe region of eastern Ukraine to the heart of Central Europe. A complex diplomatic exchange between Warsaw, Bahçesaray, and the Porte facilitated the largely peaceful relationship of neighboring states whose power structures drew paradoxically from similar narratives based on real and imagined conflicts in their mutual frontier. Concomitantly, the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional szlachta {nobility/citizenry} of the forma-mixta republic of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth developed a national myth claiming common decent as an estate from Sarmatian horse lords of antiquity. By the early 16th century, diplomacy, trade and direct contact in the vast frontier shard with the Ottoman Empire and their clients effected heavily the sartorial culture of the szlachta. This new style became a symbolic tool in the ongoing struggle of republicanism, championed by the "Sarmatian" szlachta, in the face of monarchical power, though it prompted European observers and artists such as Rembrandt to depict Poles in an "oriental" style along with Turks and Arabs. My research seeks to interrogate diplomatic and trade encounters that fed the "Ottomanization" of republican Polish-Lithuanian sartorial style. Using Polish and Ottoman documents, I recreate social networks within the diplomatic cadres of both polities that facilitated the appropriation and assimilation of Ottoman dress, and ultimately the creation of a new, local mode of self-representation in the Eurasian borderlands.
Stefano Gulizia
Paper short abstract:
This paper studies the automata presented to the Sultan during the Circumcision Festival of 1582 as an example of cross-cultural communication, like in a Plinian inventory of mirabilia and knowledge, and as a peripheral representation in a metropolitan setting.
Paper long abstract:
Jewelled books, automated clocks, and other non-animate objects were presented to the Sultan during the lavish and extended celebrations of the Royal Circumcision Festival of 1582, where they functioned as token of a gift economy and they were subject to a considerable uncertainty—according to Eastern and Western sources alike—with regards to their human-machine boundaries and the projection of the guild system that produced them. These automata raise issues of cross-cultural communication at a time in which the Ottoman court is experiencing an intense social crisis, and can be studied both as a case-study of traveling labor and as a peripheral representation in a metropolitan setting. This paper studies these perplexing objects as the genesis of a difference in a Foucauldian continuum and considers them as a polytemporal hybrid, a 'record' embedded within a colonial Mediterranean space that is endlessly morphing. My effort is to show a relationship between imperial mirabilia and knowledge, as well as an inversion between center and periphery resembling the geopolitical protocols of the Plinian encyclopedia.
For this demonstration, my paper reexamines the documentation that surrounded the sixteenth-century festivities of circumcision, paying specific attention to luxury illuminations and arguing for a new realignment of Ottoman and Western sources such as diaries and newsletters by European envoys. Then, as a corollary, I analyze in detail the lion-shaped clock which was given to the fourth vizier Mehmed Pasha and the strange moving table which served as a stage prop on behalf of the guild of the coffee-makers.