Week 8: global renaissance & material culture | Quizlet

What is the general critique of the Renaissance myth from a global/cultural perspective?

- eurocentric hierarchy

-> Traditional narratives are "dominated by a Eurocentric approach" and present the Renaissance as "a uniquely Western phenomenon rooted in the rediscovery of classical antiquity" (Christian and Clark)

-> Historiography tends to "privilege a small number of artists and centres" such as Florence and figures like Leonardo or Michelangelo

-> Renaissance art is often framed in isolation from "global trade networks and cross-cultural exchanges" that were thriving at the time

- Marx also referred to the Ren as the birth of capitalism, further perpetuating the Eurocentric narrative of this time period

What does Molà mean when saying that the renaissance was "an entangled process rather than a purely Western phenomenon" (p. 54)?

He is referring to the fact that this period was one of intense cross-cultural interactions, where commodities, artistic ideas, and technologies moved between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas instead of solely being focused on European practices

How does a global renaissance alternative challenge the critique of the Ren myth?

- Viewing Ren as a dialogue between different cultures

- Not an isolated phenomenon

- viewing ren art ad part of a global trade network and cross cultural exchange

- "rethinking the ren as part of a complex system of global interactions" (Christian & Clark)

Oriental despotism

Oriental despotism' supposedly kept Asia stagnant and blocked it from further advance. (Marx)

What is material culture? What are its implications for art history?

the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture

• Material culture "offers a way to trace the routes of exchange, encounter, and appropriation" that shaped Renaissance art (p. 7).

• It shifts focus from solely European art to "objects that tell the story of transregional contacts" (p. 7).

• For art history, this expands the field to include "non-European artistic practices and influences

How does the difference in treatment of material culture in the National Gallery and British Museum emphasise the renaissance myth?

- architecture resembles classical structures from antiquity

- division by culture

- notion of superiority-> celebrations of European culture

- institutional isolation -> the global context is missing on an institutional level (e.g national gallery is dedicated to fine art where as British museums is dedicated to archeology, no overlap between these)

- museums currently are not set up to explore the global dimensions and contexts of artworks

How does the global Mediterranean ask different questions about the same objects?

Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Magi

-> focus on porcelain

-> Genoese majolica imitating Asian styles

Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Mehmed

-> depiction of Ottoman Sultan

-> ottoman rug

Material culture and its implications for art history

- physical objects and resources that people use to define their culture

-> puts into question the definition of art

-> objects that tell stories of trans regional contacts

-> expands the field to include non-Eurocentric practices and influences

-> expands art history's object domain

object domain

A domain, containing a particular kind of object, in which there obtain rules that connect these objects with one another.

How do the following objects show a global connectedness in material culture:

- Ming dynasty porcelain dish with grape design, Jingdezhen, China, 1403-1424.

- Dish with grape design, Iznik, Turkey, 1550-1570.

- Maiolica plate, Genua, Italy, 16th century.

Ming Dish (China): Made in Jingdezhen, it used imported Iranian cobalt and featured grape designs possibly inspired by Persian or Central Asian motifs. Exported widely, it influenced artistic traditions across Eurasia.

Iznik Dish (Turkey): This Ottoman ceramic emulated Chinese porcelain in both form and decoration. The grape motif reflects direct borrowing and adaptation of Chinese models, showing cross-cultural aesthetic exchange.

Maiolica Plate (Italy): Genoese maiolica drew on both Chinese and Islamic ceramic traditions. The grape design, interpreted in a European style, shows how motifs traveled and evolved via trade and artistic exchange.

In sum: These objects illustrate how materials, techniques, and motifs—like the grapevine—circulated globally, creating a shared artistic language across cultures.

How does the Ewer, possibly made in Flanders or Germany and possibly decorated in Egypt or Syria, 1450-1500, exemplify global Mediterranean networks?

Cross-cultural Craftsmanship: Its shape reflects Northern European metalwork traditions, while the engraved Arabic calligraphy and Islamic geometric designs suggest decoration by artisans in the Islamic world.

Trade and Circulation: The ewer likely traveled across Mediterranean trade routes, exchanged through diplomatic or commercial networks that connected Europe, North Africa, and the Levant.

Cultural Synthesis: It embodies the fusion of European and Islamic visual languages, demonstrating how objects were co-produced across regions and served multiple cultural contexts.

How does the traditional approach to analysing Christian altarpieces differ from a global Mediterranean (GM) approach?

Traditional:

- iconographic and stylistic tradition

-> exploration of space, form, function, size..

GM:

- inclusion of objects from the wider world

-> carpets, cloaks, pseudo Arabic scriptures, Loto tapestries

- cross cultural exchange and trade relations

- cultural capital

What do the following artworks say about the role of outsiders in European art and altarpieces:

- Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Magi, c. 1495-1505.

- Attributed to Vasco Fernandes, Adoration of the Magi, 1501-06.

- hierarchy

-> white man is closest and most directly engaged to Christ

- Christian conversion of the New World

-> exemplifying the universality of Christianity

- inclusion of non western elements

- traditionally the 3 wise men are depicted as Europeans despite the fact that they are 3 wise men from the east

What does the use of pigments and materials tell us about exchanges within the global Mediterranean?

- use of gold (from Central Africa) and lapis lazuli (from Afghanistan)

-> exclusive resources

- blue as a symbol of Mary because it was the most expensive pigment

-> its luxury comes from its rarity and cultural relationship

- gold as a representation of heaven

What does the presence of pseudo Arabic scriptures in halo's suggest?

- a link between Christian traditional halo's to the Arabic gold discs from Mamluk culture

- the reification (an abstract idea which takes form) of halos as Mamluk disks

How does the incorporation of Mamluk iconographic elements extend past scripture?

- decorative features such as the presence of the lotus flower (found in Mamluk culture, China and Italy) and animal figures found in Indian, Mamluk and Drench Gothic art

- broader inspiration both in terms of a scripture and a decorative dimension

What does the silk fragment show about intercultural connections?

Giotto imitating in gold the decorations of Mamluk silk

-> cultural appropriation of Mamluk material culture

What does Schultz mean by the apotropaic function of pseudo lettering?

- Schultz refers to the apotropaic function of pseudo-lettering as the use of fake or unreadable script—often imitating Arabic or other exotic scripts—not for its literal meaning, but to ward off evil or convey protective power.

- In Christian art and European material culture, pseudo-lettering borrowed the aesthetic authority and perceived magical power of foreign scripts (especially Arabic), imbuing objects with mystique, prestige, and spiritual protection, even when the text was nonsensical or unreadable.

-> formal link: traditional use of Arabic lettering engraved on shields

How does the incorporation of language exemplify cross cultural influences?

Giotto, Madonna di San Giorgio alla Costa shows a fascination with different languages through the incorporation of other linguistic influences

-> this fascination is reflected in both art and literature at the time

-> Dante/Boccaccio's use of foreign linguistic elements (e.g Arabic) within their constructions of language and literature

What does Goody mean when he writes: "I do not view the Italian Renaissance as the key to modernity and to capitalism" (p. 58).

Goody questions the narrative that the Renaissance was a unique trigger for modern European capitalism, suggesting instead that "many of the components of modernity were present outside Europe and before the Renaissance" (p. 58)