Page 39 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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aspects, indexical and iconographical worth, and 2.2.
their production date. Only then (looking at the Commodity dynamics
paintings beyond a classic art historical The commodity perspective presents a valuable
approach) can the materiality of the collections point of entry to material culture. It is closely
and their current state in the Netherlands be linked to the embedded notion of – what Igor
grasped. This requires moving back and forth Kopytoff calls – a cultural biography of objects. 5
between the two unequal magnitudes of In this case, it means that the paintings are not
‘materials’ and ‘materiality’, to achieve an considered art works that have emerged from a
overview of the corpus across physical and specific art-historical style or development per
cultural contexts in space and time. In addition se. Neither are they treated as catalysts for a
38 to incorporating these helpful theoretical fundamental break with former tendencies, nor
concepts in the construction of my argument, as simply important to new trends; rather, they
this second chapter also provides an analysis of are addressed as artistic products intended for
the concepts ‘transcultural’ and ‘cultural exchange. Primarily, we should understand them
translation’ to reveal their artistic value. as things that can be transferred from one to
A new interdisciplinary approach is necessary another, involving socio-cultural, spatial and
to analyse this specific cultural heritage around temporal aspects, and as having a certain
the world and, more specifically, to evaluate the exchange value. According to the leading British
Dutch collections. Building on existing (art) archaeologist Colin Renfrew, in ‘Archaeology
historical approaches (descriptive and and commodification: The role of things in
iconographical issues, dating quests, mimesis societal transformation’ in Commodification:
facets, painting-technical aspects, ‘East-West’- Things, Agency, and Identities (The Social Life
painting conventions, cultural-contextual of Things Revisited), “the etymology of the
interpretations, etc.), which no longer hold word commodity as something corresponding to
strong positions and need extending, this study a specific regime of measurement is of special
highlights some useful views that have taken importance to understanding the crucial role of
6
root in the fields of art history, anthropology, commodification in human history.” The term
history, archaeology and museum studies. The ‘commodification’ can be understood as the
novel mix of concepts from the mentioned process when objects, goods, services, and
scholarly fields is effective for me in terms of artworks are turned into a commercial and
analysing the corpus central to Made for Trade exchangeable product that can be bought and
and makes it, what Coltman calls ‘talkative’, and sold around the world. At the time the
4
worthy of discussion. To support my argument commodification process started, the human
7
that Chinese export paintings, with their world order changed. In its initial sense, so
omnipresent commodity character, should be Renfrew argues, commodity is a symbolic
evaluated as valuable art works, this chapter concept, referring to “a material whose quantity
is constructed in sections dealing with, may be measured, which may have a definite
respectively: commodity dynamics, Chinese value, and which may be exchanged.” 8
export painting as part of a visual economy, Alternatively, Van Binsbergen tentatively defines
commodities and people in a material complex, a commodity as “a domestic object, that is, a
and transcultural lenses on this specific art part of the physical world that has been defined,
9
genre. The conclusion provides the most fitting classified, and appropriated by humans.” This
angles from which to examine the Dutch corpus definition by Van Binsbergen – as an
and to give this shared cultural repertoire the anthropologist presently working on the theory
right place and status in line with its and method of research on cultural
acknowledged use value. globalisation, especially in connection with
virtuality, information and communication
technology, ethnicity and religion – was mainly

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4 Coltman 2015, 20.
5 Kopytoff 1986, 64-91.
6 Renfrew 2005, 91-93. Van Binsbergen 2005, 26.
7 Renfrew, so posited by Van Binsbergen 2005, 25-26, sees the emerging circulation of commodities – from the
Upper Palaeolithic onwards but gaining full momentum in the Neolithic – as the true Human Revolution (maybe of
more consequence than the emergence of homo sapiens sapiens as such).
8 Renfrew 2005, 93.
9 Van Binsbergen 2005, 45.