Page 517 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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prisoners. Tupinamba hunters fought with extended to the state of their souls. False ranks with English bows and arrows. All are
long bows and arrows. Diirer represented his rumors about Martin Luther's abduction and naked like Indians or dressed in Moorish fash-
Indian with another characteristic weapon, a possible death prompted Diirer to comment in ion). They shall all be wearing laurel
ceremonial war club of hardwood with a long his diary that he hoped that Luther's example wreaths. " In Maximilian's time the generic
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rounded handle decorated with feathers fas- would be followed and "that we may again live term Calicut was not restricted to India, but
tened in the knots of a cotton net and with a free and in the Christian manner, and so, by our referred to the inhabitants of all the newly dis-
flattened, round or slightly oval blade with good works, all unbelievers, such as Turks, Hea- covered lands, including native Americans.
sharp edges. It is not known where or when then, and Calicuts, may of themselves turn to Until Magellan's trip around the world and even
Diirer may have seen Tupinamba artifacts, but us and embrace the Christian Faith/' 22 later, America was considered part of the Asian
we can establish that his rendition of the club is Diirer's meticulous but not always accurate continent. 25
accurate on the basis of a surviving example that illustration in the emperor's prayer book can be The two woodcuts signed by Burgkmair show
reached Europe later, though perhaps still in the compared to the Indians that Hans Burgkmair an oriental on his elephant followed by more or
sixteenth century. The club he drew is quite introduced into the Triumph of Maximilian, the less exotic natives. No detail in the first print
similar to a specimen now in the Musee de woodcut pageant conceived by the emperor alludes to America. In the second, some of the
l'Homme in Paris, which is perhaps the club of himself in 1512 and devised in detail by Marx men wear feather headdresses and one of them
the Tupinamba chief Quoniambec, a weapon Treitz-Saurwein, his secretary. Half the wood- probably sports a feather bonnet as in Diirer's
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brought back from Brazil by Andre Thevet in cuts were designed by Burgkmair, the others by drawing. The "skirts" in feather, too, are
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1555 or 1556. Diirer evidently had no idea of Albrecht Altdorfer, Leonard Beck, Wolf Huber, Indian, but are a misinterpretation of cloaks.
the function of this kind of club and lengthened Hans Schauffelein, Hans Springinklee, and, of Although American Indians sometimes did
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it into a lance. This proves that he certainly course, Diirer. In this gigantic triumphal pro- wear cotton garters trimmed with feathers
never saw a Tupinamba warrior but that he was cession, which was never completed, the people under their knees, Burgkmair's version of them
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acquainted with the weapon only. His human of Calicut appear just before the baggage train: has a decidedly European appearance. Such
model, in any case, has no native American fea- 'After [the knights] shall come a man of Calicut details of Burgkmair's woodcut as the knots of
tures and poses in contrapposto, like a classical (naked, with a loin cloth), mounted and carry- the bowstrings would suggest that he based his
figure. He also wears a feather cloak as though ing a verse inscription, wearing a laurel wreath; observations on European arms rather than
it were a skirt (the Tupinamba, in fact, went on the plaque shall be written these words: upon the bows and arrows that were widely
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practically naked). Diirer derived his short 'These people are subject to the previously used by Brazilian natives, including the Tupi-
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feather skirts from German broadsheets. 19 shown praiseworthy crowns and houses.'" namba. The steel ax is also European, as pre-
Diirer also gave his figure necklaces and brace- Verses were also planned: conquest Indians only had axes of stone. 29
lets of feathers, with beads perhaps of wood, The Emperor in his warlike pride, Typically Indian however are the Tupinamba
shell, or bone typical of Brazilian natives, as Conquering nations far and wide, war clubs (tacape), with a round or oval flat
well as a round leather shield of non-European Has brought beneath our Empire's yoke head at the end of a long shaft and handle deco-
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origin. The cap, too, seems to be a real Tupi- The far-off Calicuttish folk. rated with feathers and tassels. More people
namba bonnet of small feathers fastened in the Therefore we pledge him with our oath from the newly discovered countries are found
knots of a cotton net. Brazilian natives, Lasting obedience and troth. in a woodcut from the baggage train of the
however, wore no shoes nor did they have ladles Triumph, also by Burgkmair. Two of them, one
carved of horn, the strange object on which The scheme continues: "Then shall come on with a small ape and the other with a macaw,
Diirer's figure stands. 21 foot the people of Calicut. (One rank with have feather skirts and headdresses. Undeniably
Diirer's concern about people of foreign lands shields and swords. One rank with spears. Two American are the corn shafts. 31

fig. 2. Tupinamba War Club. Musee de I'Momme, fig. 3. German artist, New World Scene, c. 1505, colored woodcut. The New York
Paris Public Library, Spencer Collection, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

516 CIRCA 1492