Page 151 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

technical refinement of the decoration, especially
the burnished lettering of the decorative script,
and the very limited vocabulary of decorative ele-
ments employed (Sed-Rajna 1988).
Illuminated Hebrew manuscripts do not appear
to have been common in Europe until the thir-
teenth century. Jewish manuscript illumination
reached its peak in the following century, and
while the tradition continued through the fif-
teenth century, the later manuscripts are known
more for their highly refined technique than for
any compositional innovations. By the latter part
of the century, the manuscript tradition began to
be displaced by the introduction of Hebrew print-
ing. In fact, the first Hebrew book printed in Por-
tugal is dated 1487, only five years later than the
Lisbon Bible. J.A.L.

30
SALVER WITH AFRICAN MOTIFS

late i$th century-early i6th century
Portuguese or Afro-Portuguese
silver-gilt, engraved and repousse
5
diameter: 32 (i2 /s)
references: Resende 1596; Pina 1792; Simoes 1882;
Viterbo 1882; Vasconcelos 1882; Mota 1975; Bassani century works created as a result of the contacts west, that America belonged to the Portuguese
and Fagg 1988 with the orient. Vasconcelos noted, however, that crown by virtue of "believing that said discovery
the salver reflected a European decorative model: was made within the seas and terms of his lord-
Paldcio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon two concentric bands, the outer one divided into ship of Guinea" (Rui de Pina 1792). His contro-
eight segments separated by palm trees rather versy with the Catholic Monarchs led to the
In the last century this salver was thought to be than the traditional pilasters. He also suggested intervention of Pope Alexander vi and the Papal
an Indo-Portuguese work. In 1882 Sousa Viterbo, that the coat-of-arms of the central medallion was Bull of 4 May 1493, by which the Spanish were
describing the Exhibition of Portuguese and that of the Casa de Braganga (he assumed that the given the right to all lands found or to be found to
Spanish Art at the Palace of Janelas Verdes, which crown in the upper register belonged to a duke the west of the meridian that ran 100 leagues west
was to become the Museu Nacional de Arte and that it was not the heraldic device at the top of of the Cape Verde islands. The dispute persisted,
Antiga, questioned the Indo-Portuguese classifi- an escutcheon indicating royalty). This coat-of- however, and the Treaty of Tordesillas signed by
cation of this salver, which at the time was in the arms was frequently reproduced during the reign Portugal and Spain on 7 June of the following year
collection of Dom Luis i, asking whether "these of Dom Manuel i, in the Cartas de forais f the changed that distance to 370 leagues, at the sug-
are scenes of Africa, or scenes of Asia?" A. Filipe volumes of the Leitura Nova (see cat. 26) and in gestion of Duarte Pacheco Pereira. The objective
Simoes, who wrote a series of articles on the the coinage of the "Perfect Prince." Dom Joao n was to specify an area that would include the coast
exhibition, unaware of Sousa Viterbo's reserva- changed the coat-of-arms of the Portuguese of Brazil (reached just six years later).
tions, described the salver as depicting "Indians crown. He eliminated the cross of Avis and cor- The construction of the fort of Mina in Africa,
armed with crossbows, elephant hunts, and palm rected the lateral escutcheons, placing them as which was essential for maintaining the monopoly
trees; in the central medallion the royal Portu- pendants (they had previously been placed hori- on gold, led to the naval policy which, with the
guese arms are engraved." zontally). In 1485 Dom Joao n was first called objective of reaching the orient, encouraged con-
At that time the Indo-Portuguese works of "the Lord of Guinea" (G. de Resende, 1596, ch. tinued exploration along the African coast. In
art —furniture, ivory, bedspreads, and goldsmiths' LVII). While still a prince he received from his 1486 John Afonso of Aveiro reached the kingdom
works —were the subject of nostalgia for the mari- father, Dom Alfonso v, the concession of the of Benin, opening the door to cultural contacts.
time and mercantile grandeur of the Age of Dis- Guinea trade, and the rights to fish in its rivers This salver may have been created during
coveries. Charles Yriarte lamented that a special and seas; it was prohibited for anyone to go there the early phase of contact with Africa, to convey
section had not been devoted to them in the or send anyone there without the prince's authori- images of a world that was just beginning
exhibition. In 1882, the historian Joaquim de Vas- zation. On being elevated to the throne he knew to be known in Portugal, a world in which the
concelos, who had studied the goldsmiths' works from his own experience just how profitable was indigenous artists were creating, in response to
of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries in depth, the African trade in gold, ivory, and slaves, which Portuguese commissions, the fascinating Afro-
considered this salver a work done in "Indian, was the crown's recognized source of wealth. Portuguese ivories (see the essay by Ezio Bassani
semi-barbarian style, the work of some artist from Dom Joao's rights in Guinea were the basis for in this catalogue and cats. 67-78). The unusual
the Portuguese colony of Goa." His attribution the claim he made in 1493, upon learning from aesthetic of these ivories also seems to be present
reveals the influence of the many sixteenth- Columbus of the newly discovered lands to the in this salver. J.T.

150 CIRCA 1492