Negotiating Appropriation: Later Safavid Adaptations of Chinese Blue-and-white Porcelain

The beginnings of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain in Safavid Persia are naturally connected with trade between China and Persia, which took place during the Yongle reign (1402–1424), when Sino-Persian exchange entered a new era. It is worth remembering here that between 1406–1433 China launched seven major maritime expeditions that reached as far as the Indian Ocean, Ceylon, eastern coast of Africa, Persian Gulf, and Persia. Interestingly, all of these brave voyages were conducted by a Muslim admiral named Zheng He (1371–1433).1) It is due to these courageous actions that the Chinese gained sophisticated geographical knowledge and established important trade connections. It is worth noticing here that the vast crew taking part in these trips also included merchants. In 1433 the expeditions were stopped all of a sudden most probably because of the fact that China’s economy was not yet sufficiently developed to continue foreign trade expansion, which was a rather marginal activity for the overall economic situation of the country. As later history proved, this thoughtlessly and rather short-sightedly made decision turned out to be unfavourable for China, when trade was successfully conducted by the Europeans. [...

Domesticating goods from overseas : global material culture in the early modern Netherlands

This essay is based on the notion that the early modern world was shaped by connections that stretched across geographical, political and cultural boundaries. The mobility of early modern people, ideas and things, and the networks they created and relied on, facilitated flows of material and immaterial interactions. Within that early modern connected world, material culture played a key role. Goods ranging from treasured, unique objects to commodities traded in vast quantities always accumulate layers of meanings as they move through time and space. By looking at a number of things in circulation in the early modern Netherlands, we can identify them as both ‘global’, in the sense of having travelled across long distances, having accumulated associations with the exotic, and as ‘local’, part of the cultural practices we have come to think of as Dutch. Methodologically, this essay combines a close reading of the idealized representations of things in domestic spaces we encounter in paintings with an analysis of the materiality, design and historical trajectories of the things themselves. Tracing global and local aspects of design as it appears in idealized representations and in early modern Dutch historical objects, I argue that embodied experiences play key roles in the domestication of goods from overseas. I seek to show that through vision and touch, and the proximity of objects to bodies in domestic environments, goods from all over the world become part of the material culture of the seventeenth-century Netherlands. As exotic goods and materials become part of the domestic environment, global goods gain local meanings, and simultaneously bestow new layers of meaning on the material culture of the early modern Netherlands

An archaeological investigation of hybridization in Bantenese and Dutch colonial encounters: food and foodways in the Sultanate of Banten, Java, 17th to early 19th century

The constant mutability of cultures as they meet and mix provides an ongoing laboratory in which to explore human dynamics. In this dissertation, I analyze the process and results of one indigenous-colonial encounter in Dutch Indonesia, using archaeological evidence from Banten, Java that illuminates interactions between Bantenese elites and Dutch East India Company (VOC) soldiers in the 17th to early 19th century. Banten, a global trade center and the focal point of Dutch expansion in Asia, had a cosmopolitan and multinational society of long standing, already apparent when the Dutch arrived in 1596. My research shows that a kind of "reverse" colonialism occurred here. Bantenese cultural influences penetrated more deeply into Dutch culture than the other way around, so that colonial Dutch culture took on a new, hybridized identity. Utensils and vessels necessary for preparing and serving meals from excavations in the indigenous Sultan's Surosowan Palace, its surrounding Fort Diamond manned by VOC soldiers, and the Dutch headquarters at Fort Speelwijk provide the evidence. Petrographic and archaeological study indicate that the Dutch used locally produced Bantenese-style cooking vessels and lids, rather than import European tripod pots to accommodate their traditional open-fire cooking. Local Bantenese continued to use cooking stoves without tripod vessels, maintaining their culinary habits. VOC archives revealed a change in Dutch staple food from bread to rice. Hired male cooks and local women who prepared home meals (as wives and concubines) acted as cultural conduits, while vibrant local manufacturing and trade made local goods readily available. Thus Dutch cooking became hybridized with locally available vessels and ingredients. The Banten results differed from the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa but were similar to the Dejima trading post in Japan where the Dutch relied on local products. I conclude that proximity and daily interactions with the host society were crucial for shaping Dutch responses to the new environments and creating hybrid culture, instead of replicating their homeland. This study places Banten on the global map of cross-cultural interactions and colonial discourse; I hope to stimulate other researchers to test my hypotheses and build on these interpretations.2016-12-31T00:00:00

Amalia van Solms and the Formation of the Stadhouder's Art Collection, 1625-1675

This dissertation examines the role of Amalia van Solms (1602-1675), wife of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange and Stadhouder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1584-1647), in the formation of the couple's art collection. Amalia and Frederik Hendrik's collection of fine and decorative arts was modeled after foreign, royal courts and they cultivated it to rival those of other great European treasure houses. While some scholars have recognized isolated instances of Amalia's involvement with artistic projects at the Stadhouder's court, this dissertation presents a more comprehensive account of these activities by highlighing specific examples of Amalia's patronage and collecting practices. Through an examination of gifts of art, portraits of Amalia and her porcelain collection, this study considers the ways in which Amalia contributed to the formation of the Stadhouder's art collection. This dissertation seeks to provide a greater knowledge not only of Amalia's activities as a patron and collector, but also a more throrough understanding of the genesis and function of the collection as a whole, which reflected the power and glory of the House of Orange during the Dutch Golden Age

Paths to Power in the Early Stage of Colonialism: An Archaeological Study of the Sultanate of Banten, Java, Indonesia, the Seventeenth to Early Nineteenth Century

This article discusses the results of our archaeological research at an important global pepper-trading center located in west Java, Indonesia, to examine the sultan’s power and the transition processes from the year 1682 when the Dutch East India Company effectively took political and economic control over the sultanate, until the official end of the Sultanate of Banten in 1813. Through the study of prestige goods and food used at the court, we critically explore power relationships in this early stage of colonialism. The results of our study suggest that European cultural influence was limited to the public domain and most aspects of the sultan’s daily life largely remained unchanged. However, the changing political structure was one factor in the eventual decline of the sultan’s power. The archaeological focus on foodways in the study presented here reveals a more nuanced understanding of these gradual political changes than has been suggested by previous archaeological research primarily based on monumental architecture and major historical events

China and the West

For the first time, an edited volume presents a major survey dedicated to Chinese reverse glass painting, tracing its history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics. Manufactured for export to Europe as well as for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West

China and the West

For the first time, an edited volume presents a major survey dedicated to Chinese reverse glass painting, tracing its history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics. Manufactured for export to Europe as well as for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West