Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies ISSN: 0874-8438 [email protected] Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Curvelo, Alexandra; Senos, Nuno The Arts and the Portuguese Colonial Experience - a Symposium Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies, vol. 13, december, 2006, pp. 109-112 Universidade Nova de Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal

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THE ARTS AND THE PORTUGUESE COLONIAL EXPERIENCE – A SYMPOSIUM Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 24 & 25 March 2006

Alexandra Curvelo Centro de História de Além-Mar, New University of

Nuno Senos Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

The nambam biombos depicting the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan are a mandatory part of every visit to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon. Material evidence of a past that spans almost six-hundred years – from the conquest of in 1415 to the return of Macao to full Chinese sover- eignty in 1999 –, the celebrated biombos also constitute a visual synthesis of the Portuguese voyages through the four corners of the world. They include depictions of sailors and diplomats, merchants and clergy, men of several colors and creeds arriving to that edge of the world carrying the weight acquired during a century and a half of travels in the form of Persian horses, parrots from , chairs from China, tea from Ceylon, or Indian elephants, as well as several goods shipped in Portugal over a year earlier, still locked in heavy boxes. Praised as a glorious epic or denounced as a genocidal disaster, the Portu- guese colonial experience constitutes, for better and worse, a central compo- nent of Portugal’s history, memory, and identity. Furthermore, because of its diversity, its contribution, its chronological priority and longevity, the history of the is a fundamental component for our understanding of what European was in the Early Modern Age. The historiography on the subject, began as the events themselves were taking place, is abundant and some of it, albeit not enough, is available and familiar to an internationalaudience. In contrast, the art that resulted from the whole process has not received the attention it deserves. There are still few publications and even fewer scholars professionally devoted to its study. In Portuguese universities there are still no courses functioning on a regular 110 News basis devoted to colonial art in spite of the pioneering efforts developed by the Department of Art History of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. It is fair to acknowledge the difficulties inherent to the study of an archi- tecture spread through remote parts of the globe, often abandoned and ruined, and of an art (, , furniture, metalwork, textiles…) even more dispersed through museums, private collections and religious institutions, very little published and often not yet catalogued. It is also fair to acknowledge the efforts of those scholars and institutions that, in spite of all difficulties, have contributed to the study and visibility of this poor cousin of Portuguese art history, as well as the generosity of museums, private collec- tors and art dealers that have, throughout the years, made their collections available to the greater benefit of a wider audience. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go. With all this is mind, the Centro de História de Além-Mar (Center for Overseas History) decided to organize an international symposium dedicated to the arts produced in the Portuguese colonial contexts. The authors of this note organized the event and the proposal was presented to and enthusiasti- cally received by the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University that co-orga- nized and hosted the event. Holding this symposium in New York allowed for its message to reach an audience that could not have been contacted had the event been organized in Lisbon or in any of the countries touched by the Portuguese presence in the world in the Early Modern Age. On the other hand, the choice of this location was conducive to the adoption of a type of meeting that should neither be too focused nor too long in order not to alienate a non-specialized audience. Hopefully, we will be able to develop other models in future meetings. We also aimed at gathering a diversified group of scholars that, even though working on neighboring topics, often do so in the isolation of their offices and libraries in Portugal, the United States, Japan or Brazil, without realizing that there is a dispersed community of researchers with which they could exchange knowledge, concerns and experiences. This symposium provided scholars with an opportunity to meet and share their work. We have therefore put together a list of guests, which, of course, does not exhaust the scope of those who study Portuguese colonial art but that tried to reflect the diversity of their geographical dispersion. Finally, we have invited three chairs to moderate the discussions that took place after each panel. With the exception of Edward Sullivan (NYU), none of the other has produced any research on Portugal or the Portuguese world. Jonathan Brown (NYU) is a specialist in Spanish painting of the golden age who, in the past decade, has been developing an interest for the art of Spanish News 111

America. Jonathan Spence (Yale) is a specialist of the history of China and its contacts with Early Modern Europe. Edward Sullivan has developed a diver- sified career, which spans from Spanish and Portuguese to Latin American modernity, including an exhibition on held at the Guggenheim Museum (New York); Sullivan is currently Dean for the Humani- ties at NYU. By choosing experts in other fields, we have aimed at stimulating their curiosity for a field that is generally understudied, and simultaneously argue in favor of its interdisciplinary potential. That all three accepted our invitation shows that such potential exists and can be further explored. The list of participants included: João Paulo Oliveira e Costa (Portugal), Gauvin Bailey (USA), Paulo Varela Gomes (Portugal), Barbara Karl (), Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro (Japan), Alexandra Curvelo (Portugal), Peter Mark (USA), Myriam Ribeiro (Brazil), Luís Moura Sobral (Canada) and Nuno Senos (USA). Jonathan Brown chaired the first panel, entitled “A Globalized World”. The keynote address was given by João Paulo Costa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), who provided the audience with a survey of Portuguese colonial history. He also presented a number of works of art that reflect the exchange of works of art and artistic influences triggered by the Portuguese voyages in , Asia and America. Gauvin Bailey (Clark University) presented a paper on the global commerce of works of art in the colonial period, underlining the fluxes that linked the Portuguese and Spanish domains in the several parts of the extra-European world. These papers illustrated the process through which, in the Early Modern age, global commercial lines were developed that transported pepper from Portuguese Asia, from Spanish America as well as many works of art. The panel entitled “The Asian World”, moderated by Jonathan Spence (Yale University), was composed of four papers. Paulo Varela Gomes (Univer- sidade de ) presented the most recent results of a research project his team has been developing on the Portuguese presence in Bombay, namely the transformations imposed on a Hindu temple in order to adapt it to the practice of the catholic cult. Barbara Karl (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) spoke about a set of colchas made in for European buyers, adapting iconographic motifs from classical mythology to an Indian textile technique. Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro (Tokio Institute of Technology) spoke about the urban and architectural development of Macao, including religious, civil and military complexes. Finally, Alexandra Curvelo (CHAM) presented a survey on the art produced in Japan reflecting the Portuguese presence in the archi- pelago, as well as the extensions of such artistic production to Macao and Mexico after the expulsion of the missionaries from Japan. 112 News

The last panel, “The Atlantic World”, moderated by Edward Sullivan (IFA), was also composed of four papers. Peter Mark (Wesleyan University) presented on a group of Portuguese Jews settled in the Atlantic coast of Africa that functioned as an intermediary between the local communities and the Portuguese merchants in a trade that involved works made of ivory. Like the Indian colchas, these ivories are works of art made according to non- European techniques but following iconographic models commissioned by the Portuguese. Myriam Ribeiro (Universidade Federal da ) showed that the art of gilded woodcarving developed in in the 18th century, traditionally considered as the first genuinely Brazilian artistic expression, was in fact initiated by sculptors born, raised and trained in Portugal who settled in that area of Brazil. Luís de Moura Sobral (Université de Montreal) presented the first serious attempt at systematizing the work of Luso-Brazilian painter António Simões Ribeiro, who was responsible for the introduction in of quadrattura ceilings, a painting typology that achieve special splendor in colonial Brazil. Finally, Nuno Senos (IFA) spoke about the cult of Saint Benedito, a black saint, promoted by the Franciscans in Northeastern Brazil through a varied number of works of art. The symposium was very well received both regarding the quantity (an average of one hundred people) and the quality of the audience. Beyond a number of generally interested attendants, the audience also comprised professors from several universities from the East Coast, including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Johns Hopkins, besides New York University, Columbia and The City University of New York, curators from the Metro- politan Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Founda- tion, the Brooklyn Museum and The Americas Society, gallery professionals, collectors, and many students. A number of social events provided speakers, moderators and audience with less formal opportunities to meet and make contacts. The organizers are especially grateful to the Institute of Fine Arts, Dr. Almeida Fernandes, ambassador of Portugal in New York, Roberta and Richard Huber, and Professor Edward Sullivan for hosting these events. A final word of gratitude to our sponsors: this symposium was made possible through the generosity of the Luso-American Foundation for Development (Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento) and the Instituto Camões.