How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps
Abstract
The present essay is designed to contribute to the extensive literature on the images of the New World ‘Other’ following the early European contacts with the Americas. In particular, it focuses on hitherto neglected portraits of sovereign rulers in the Americas in triumphal procession in sixteenth-century cartography. It starts from the South American ruler depicted in Guillaume Le Testu’s ‘Cosmographie universelle’ (1556) and moves on to other portrayals of non-European sovereigns. I emphasize the idea that when it came to representing the New World early modern artists were not free of the influence of the classical heritage so that, for example, depictions of the triumphal processions in the Americas analyzed in this essay were based on Andrea Mantegna’s ‘Triumphs of Caesar’ paintings (c. 1486-1505). These early representations were rarely the result of direct contact with the New World, but I conclude with a singular exception: Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557), the Spanish chronicler of the Indies, who struggled with the difficulty of representing the novelty of the Americas and regretted not having the skills of an artist such as, paradoxically, Andrea Mantegna. We know that the latter was never in the New World so we can only wonder whether his visualization would have been very different or if he too would have chosen to depict its rulers in classical triumphal procession.
Abstract
The present essay is designed to contribute to the extensive literature on the images of the New World ‘Other’ following the early European contacts with the Americas. In particular, it focuses on hitherto neglected portraits of sovereign rulers in the Americas in triumphal procession in sixteenth-century cartography. It starts from the South American ruler depicted in Guillaume Le Testu’s ‘Cosmographie universelle’ (1556) and moves on to other portrayals of non-European sovereigns. I emphasize the idea that when it came to representing the New World early modern artists were not free of the influence of the classical heritage so that, for example, depictions of the triumphal processions in the Americas analyzed in this essay were based on Andrea Mantegna’s ‘Triumphs of Caesar’ paintings (c. 1486-1505). These early representations were rarely the result of direct contact with the New World, but I conclude with a singular exception: Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557), the Spanish chronicler of the Indies, who struggled with the difficulty of representing the novelty of the Americas and regretted not having the skills of an artist such as, paradoxically, Andrea Mantegna. We know that the latter was never in the New World so we can only wonder whether his visualization would have been very different or if he too would have chosen to depict its rulers in classical triumphal procession.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Notes on Contributors VII
- Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Space
- Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
- The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
- Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
-
Part II: Use and Reception
- Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
- Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
- Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
- Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
-
Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
- The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
- Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
- Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
- Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
-
Part IV: Word and Images
- Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
- Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
- How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
- Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
- Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
- Index of Modern Authors 403
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Notes on Contributors VII
- Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Space
- Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
- The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
- Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
-
Part II: Use and Reception
- Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
- Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
- Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
- Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
-
Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
- The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
- Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
- Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
- Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
-
Part IV: Word and Images
- Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
- Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
- How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
- Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
- Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
- Index of Modern Authors 403
