Page 10 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Foreword

If the date 1492 has been drilled into the con- mounting curiosity about what were, for them, selected for this show, as explained in the intro-
sciousness of generations of American school distant worlds. It then takes the Mediterranean duction, illustrate specific historical points. But
children, it has, until recently, been largely littoral as an entity. It examines the Portugal the essence of our exhibition is to go beyond
from the single viewpoint of a European civili- that gave contemporary navigation its start, the illustration, to embodiment. This show is not
zation transported to a "New World." Spain that sent Columbus and so many others about a man called Christopher Columbus; his
Now, with a 5ooth anniversary, we have an on their epoch-making voyages, and the Italy name does not even appear in the title. It is
opportunity to pause and reflect on the signifi- from which Columbus and the humanist tradi- about the extraordinary age in which he played
cance of a milestone in human history that, tion sprang. Not limiting itself to these, it goes his part. The worlds of visual art and artifact
however it may be interpreted from diverse on to make reference to the lands and cultures communicate so much more than the dry facts
points of view, must be considered a watershed that were connected with them, such as the of historical events and do it, bridging time and
in the history of our globe. The meeting of kingdoms of western Africa, linked by their space, without words, directly. It is the thesis of
worlds that took place around 1492 has, in fact, trade routes northward, and the world of Islam, this exhibition that to grasp the lasting signifi-
been called "the most significant secular event which made many astronomical and other intel- cance of an epoch, there is nothing quite so illu-
in human history, a statement with which even lectual contributions to Mediterranean culture minating as the experience of an original object
partisans of a revisionist view concur. One and played a particularly crucial role in the early made in that time. When that object is a work
opportunity this anniversary affords is to hold interchange between East and West. of art, the experience can be unforgettable.
an exhibition that attempts, from the lasting Then, as now, the world of the intellect knew The juxtapositions provided here will generate,
perspective of art and cultural achievement, to no national boundaries, and among the person- we hope, a newer, keener understanding, both
assess what we have loosely termed the "Age alities reflected in this section are a Polish intellectually and affectively, of this historic
of Exploration"; what it has meant, and by astronomer, a German cartographer who worked era, and cannot but help give new resonance
inference, could, and even must mean to our in Lorraine, as well as the greatest artist- to the very concept of a Quincentennial
present world. scientist from north of the Alps, Albrecht Diirer. commemoration.
E pluribus unum. Pluralism is at the very The section closes with the most protean ex- Begun at the time of our Treasure Houses of
root of the American tradition. Globalism is plorer of them all, born within a year of Colum- Britain show in 1985-1986 as the Gallery's next
increasingly becoming recognized, in a country bus—Leonardo da Vinci. large-scale undertaking, the project has been
that is not without its isolationist past, as a The show then takes a bold leap into the unusually complex, involving loans from some
necessity for survival. While Americans search imagination. It invites the visitor on an imagi- 210 collections and individuals in 34 countries.
out their specific cultural identities and roots, nary voyage, to explore the European search for We are fortunate to have secured the services
globalism pleads for awareness, sensitivity, and "Cathay," the Indies, "Cipangu" (Japan), for this project of Dr. Jay A. Levenson, a specia-
a new sympathy for the cultural identities of moving into the subjunctive mode to reveal, list in late fifteenth-century art who had started
others. The single epoch in human history that with the hindsight of 500 years, some of the his career at the National Gallery and then
can be said to have made possible the idea of extraordinarily rich cultures that existed in became a mergers and acquisitions lawyer in
globalism is the Age of Exploration, an age that Asia, in the order in which Columbus would New York. He is chiefly responsible for the
began in the fifteenth century with the voyages have encountered them if he had been able to articulate formulation and organization of the
of the Chinese admiral Zheng He, and, for the complete the voyage that he thought he had exhibition's many diverse elements. He has
Western world, with the Portuguese voyages made until his dying day. been ably assisted by a talented staff here at the
down the coast of Africa. Finally, the reality of the American conti- Gallery and a team of some fifty scholars with
Circa 1492 examines, first of all, the ethos of nents unknown to Europe and Asia before expertise in all the various fields on which the
a Mediterranean world in which, with a new Columbus is presented, selectively, with the exhibition touches. The contributions of many
vibrancy and energy, mankind was searching to impact of their highly developed civilizations. of these gifted people are recognized in more
understand its place in relation to this earth, We are left to marvel at the achievements and detail in the acknowledgments. We are grateful
bringing to bear a new consciousness, a new diversity of these cultures and the aesthetic for the early help of the Renaissance authority
humanism growing out of centuries of concen- power of their arts. Professor Sydney J. Freedberg before his retire-
tration on other-worldliness. The measuring Our hope is that, by attempting an exhibition ment as the Gallery's chief curator, and to the
and mapping that led to the navigation of that for once goes horizontally through space many other distinguished scholars throughout
unknown seas sprang from the same impulses rather than vertically through time, we can help the world who have contributed to the exhibi-
that helped define spatial perception through sensitize our visitors to the significance of world tion and to this catalogue. A special word of
perspective, the structure of the human body, culture at a particular moment, in its multi- thanks is owed to our editors office, and our
and even the attempt to chart what Leonardo form variety. The period of human achievement colleagues at the Yale University Press, Marsilio
called "the motions of the mind/' surrounding the year 1492 was a truly epochal Editori in Venice, and at National Geographic
The first section of this exhibition begins one, with repercussions, positive and negative, Society, all of whom had to work under
with a prologue that sketches in the Europeans' that inform our own age. Certain objects extremely tight deadlines.

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