Page 22 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

example, completely disappeared. Contempo- exhibition, and that, too, is reflected in the animals, drawn from life. At about the same
rary inventories describe objects such as human selection of objects. Large-scale secular paint- time as Leonardo and Diirer executed their
and animal figures made of pure gold and ings designed for public display, like the Miracle famous studies (cats. 184, 203, 204), Shen Zhou
weighing over fifty pounds. What have sur- of the Relic of the True Cross of 1494 by Vittore produced an equally astonishing album of his
vived are relatively small votive figurines Carpaccio (cat. 150), which is included in "The own (cat. 314).
recovered in modern times from archaeological Rationalization of Space/' are very characteristic Today's world, which is rapidly approaching
sites (cats. 442-448). Sometimes still wearing of European art late in the century. The Chinese 1992, is dramatically different from the world
their miniature clothes, they tell us much about paintings of this period that are best known, on of 1492. And yet, as John Elliott explains in his
Inka religious practices and give us as good a the other hand, are subtle landscape scrolls essay, the same could be said of the world of
sense as we will ever have of the much larger intended for a scholar's study. While such works 1592. The changes set in motion by the Age
works that were turned into gold and silver are well represented in the show, the presence of Exploration were immediate and profound,
ingots nearly 500 years ago. of monumental European paintings made it an bringing together parts of the globe that had
We can also be thankful that a small number excellent opportunity to focus attention on the never before been in direct contact. It is diffi-
of pre-Hispanic religious manuscripts survived much less familiar paintings produced by cult for us to imagine a world in which commu-
early colonial attempts to suppress the Aztec Chinese court artists for display in the imperial nications between cultures were as restricted as
religion. These books, on pages of deerskin palace. Shang Xi's splendid hanging scroll they were circa 1492. This fact makes it all the
covered with gesso and assembled into screen- depicting Guan Yu Capturing Pang De (cat. more remarkable to find such consistent crea-
fold codices, communicate through a beautiful 287), nearly eight feet wide, which portrays a tive excellence in so many widely separated
pictographic language that can still be read. battle scene from a novel of the early Ming lands. Even Diirer, who lived in Columbus' age,
Represented in the exhibition by the Codex period, shows the Chinese master, like Carpac- was struck —and moved —by this phenomenon,
Fejervdry-Mayer (cat. 356) and the Codex Cospi cio, responding to the demands of composing when he saw the Aztec works in Brussels: "All
(cat. 359) (a work that had entered a celebrated for large public spaces. the days of my life I have seen nothing that
Bolognese Kunstkammer as early as the seven- The selection of specific masters to be rejoiced my heart so much as these things, for
teenth century), they are the source for much of included in the exhibition also reflects its special I saw amongst them wonderful works of art,
our primary knowledge of the Aztec religion themes. Sesshu and'Shen Zhou are pivotal fig- and I marvelled at the subtle ingenia of people
and calendar. The depiction of the baneful influ- ures in their respective artistic traditions, but in foreign lands." We hope that sense of won-
ence of the planet Venus on different classes of they also form marvelous parallels to the artists der emerges clearly from the works of art
mankind that appears in the Codex Cospi strik- that have been singled out in the Mediterranean assembled in this exhibition. From our vantage
ingly parallels representations of the " Children section, Leonardo and Diirer. Sesshu was a point in a world in which cultural interchange
of the Planets" in astrological manuscripts from great artist-traveler, who journeyed to China, and mutual interdependence are almost taken
Renaissance Europe, like the Este De Sphaera much like Diirer to Italy, to learn the Chinese for granted, there is much to be learned from
(cat. 116). painting tradition at its source. And Shen looking back to the remarkable moment in his-
Works of art from such diverse cultural tradi- Zhou's remarkable range of artistic interests tory when the world first began to grow
tions have rarely been included in the same included the rendering of humble plants and smaller.

CIRCA 1492 21