• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Marco Polo

An Older Orient

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Fashion, Orientalism

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Chinoiserie, Conquest of Constantinople, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, Mehmed II, Orientalism, Suleiman the Magnificent, Turquerie

gentile_bellini_003

Mehmed II, the Conqueror by Gentile Bellini (National Gallery, London)

emperorsuleiman-1

Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent by Titian, c. 1530 (Wikipedia)

An Older Orient

  • the Silk Road
  • the Spice Trade
  • Mehmed II the Conqueror
  • Marco Polo
  • portraits

The West has an older Orient, older than the paintings of 19th-century artists, lured by East, but depicing a Eurocentric Orient, a colonized Orient.

Our older Orient is, for instance, Marco Polo’s Orient, the Orient of merchants. It is as traders that Europeans, the West, first interacted with the East. That Orient would lead to the age of discovery and, eventually, to colonialism. However, that Orient, the Far East, mesmerized Venetian merchant Marco Polo (1254 – 8-9 January  1324) who travelled the silk road (114 BCE – 1450s CE), a pathway that had been used for more than a thousand years and which Marco Polo probably improved.The silk road took Marco Polo to China. He met Kublai Khan (23 September  1215 – 18 February 1294), the Conqueror who established the Yuan Dynasty and was the first Emperor of China. In this case, the conqueror was Kublai Khan, the East, not Marco Polo. Marco Polo served Kublai Khan for twenty years.

Consequently, had a European artist made a portrait of Kublai Khan, it would have been the portrait of a conqueror as is the portrait of Mehmed II the Conqueror or Mehmet II (30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481) made by Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) in 1480 and featured at the top of this post. Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, the current Istanbul, in 1453 vastly expanding the Muslim world to include Eastern Europe. In 1479, Venice summoned Gentile Bellini, a portraitist of the School of Venice, to travel to Constantinople and make a portrait Sultan Mehmed II, or Mehmet II.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gentile-bellini-the-sultan-mehmet-ii

The Wikipedia entry on Gentile Bellini describes Gentile as one the “founders of the Orientalist tradition in Western painting.”

“In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of the Orientalist tradition in Western painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe.”
(See Gentile Bellini, Wikipedia.)

Here, it would appear the term Orientalism is used upside down. But it could be that the term Orientalism is pluralistic. One knows the meaning of the word because of the context in which it is used. Mehmed II was a Conqueror, not the conquered. If one had to attach tags to the portrait featured at the very top of this post, terms such as portraiture, Italian, and the school of Venice may well precede Orientalism. But Gentile Bellini’s famous portrait is nevertheless the portrait of a very powerful Ottoman Sultan, one of the most powerful Ottoman Sultans in history. The word  “Orientalism” may be patronizing when applied to the 19th-century genre depicting the colonized and powerless East, but in cannot be when the content is the portrait of a Conqueror.

However, this portrait can be linked to the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, when England, France, and a collapsing Imperial Russia patronizingly partitioned the Ottoman Empire, which it expected to defeat and defeated. In 1922, during the Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923), the Sultan was sent into exile and two years later the Caliph was removed. The Ottoman Empire had lasted 700 years, from the 13th century until the 20th, but it did not defeat the Byzantine Empire until 29 May 1453. It had survived the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire (4 September 476),  but it had broken with the Western Church in 1054 CE (See Fall of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia and Defeat and dissolution Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Wikipedia.)

The Byzantine Empire had followed the Roman Empire, but Constantinople had been called Byzantium until the Christian Church as an institution was founded in 325 CE, at the First Council of Nicaea, by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. After the Great Schism of 1054 CE, it became the Holy See of Orthodox Christianity. (See Fall of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia.)

So Gentile Bellini, was an Orientalist of a different orientation. When he was in Turkey and Greece, he could not resist sketching Turks and other Muslims, but he was not depicting colonized individuals. Other members of the Venetian School also painted the Orient.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?school=13208&page=1
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/FILE/2156.jpg?w=800&h=750

A Janissary by Gentile Bellini, 1479-1480 (British Museum)
A Janissary by Gentile Bellini, 1479-1480 (British Museum)
Turkish Woman by Gentile Bellini 1479-1480 (British Museum)
Turkish Woman by Gentile Bellini 1479-1480 (British Museum)

Merchants, Discoverers, and Conquerors

Marco Polo

In a sense Marco Polo resembles our 19th-century Orientalists. Marco Polo documented his Orient by narrating his travels. He was fascinated by the lands he travelled, the people he met, and the animals he saw, animals unknown in Europe. He therefore told his  story to Rustichello da Pisa who became the co-author, or amanuensis, of The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300), also entitled Il Milione and Le Livre des merveilles du monde. Marco Polo’s Il Milione was written in Medieval French. Rustichello and Marco were prisoners in Genoa when Marco narrated his story, which means that Le Livre des merveilles du monde is an example of prison literature.

Venetian Fra Mauro and Christopher Columbus

The Travels of Marco Polo was a bestseller. The book inspired cartographer Fra Mauro, a Benedictine monk who died in 1464. More importantly, Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (31 October 1450 and 30 October 1451 in Genoa – died on 20 May 1506 in Valladolid) found a Latin copy of Il Milione which he annotated. Marco Polo was a merchant, so, as mentioned above, trade was the first way East and West interacted.

Vasco da Gama: Colonialism

Matters would change. Marco Polo’s book may also have influenced Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), who departed Lisbon on 8 July 1497 and was the first European to reach India by sea linking the Atlantic Ocean (the West) and the Indian Ocean (the East). Once again, trade was the motive: the spice trade. Portugal wanted to  undermine the Republic of Venice whose merchants  could travel safely by land to purchase the spices of the Orient. Vasco da Gama was appointed Viceroy of India in 1524, by the king of Portugal.

Vasco da Gama committed acts of cruelty. For instance, he locked 400 Muslim pilgrims, including 50 women and their babies, and, after their ship was looted, he had his prisoners burned to death. This incident is named the Pilgrim ship incident. (See Vasco da Gama, Wikipedia.)

See also http://esmeraldashipwreck.com/history/

The Crusades

  • tapestries, the mille-fleurs (thousand flowers) motif
  • carpets
cluny-dame_a_la_licorne-detail_16

La Dame à la licorne, Mille-fleurs motif (Musée national du Moyen-Âge, Paris) (Wikipedia)

Beginning in the 11th century, Crusaders were influenced by the magnificent carpets of the Orient many of which contained silver and gold and displayed the mille-fleurs motif, which was a favourite.

The last Crusade was the conquest of the Constantinople, in 1453, but the Crusades began in the 11th century. Oriental motifs had therefore entered Europe quite early in the Middle Ages. The Apocalypse Tapestry, which consisted of large number of panels, 90, was made between 1377–1382, by Jean Bondol and Nicholas Bataille. It is undeniably astonishing. Several panels were damaged or destroyed, but those that survived are housed in the Château d’Angers, France. The more famous Lady and the Unicorn (La Dame à la licorne), which we have discussed, a long time ago, is housed in the Musée national du Moyen Âge, the former Cluny Museum, in Paris. But the following contains relevant information.

http://www.thecultureconcept.com/the-lady-and-the-unicorn-and-millefleurs-style-tapestries

A tapestry resembling the Dame à la licorne, The Hunt of the Unicorn (seven panels), made in Liège, is housed in the Cloister (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The Apocalypse Tapestry and the Dame à la licorne (six panels) were both made in Europe, Flanders to be precise. Jean Bondol was from Bruges.

Louis XIV, the French King, could have his tapestries and carpets made at the Gobelins Manufactory. A second factory, the Savonnerie Manufactory, a former soap factory (savon) was also established in the 17th century. The Savonnerie was established in 1615 by Pierre DuPont who had just returned from the Levant. The Savonnerie was incorporated with the Gobelins Manufactory in 1825. (See Savonnerie Manufactory, Wikipedia.)

Turquerie and Chinoiserie

Turquerie, a taste for all things reflecting the Ottoman Turks, was not popular in Europe until the 18th century, a late date if one considers that Francis I of France and Suleiman the Magnificent entered into an alliance, the Franco-Ottoman Alliance, in 1536. This entente would last until Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. (See French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, Wikipedia). Similarly, Chinoiserie, an engouement, a craze, for all things Chinese, did not flourish until the 18th century.

800px-jean-etienne_liotard_-_a_woman_in_turkish_dress_-_google_art_project

Woman in Turkish Dress by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 18th century (Google Art Project)

le_jardin_chinois_detail_by_francois_boucher

Chinese Garden by François Boucher, 18th century (Wikipedia)

Conclusion

There is an older Orient. Edward Said’s may be patronizing, but Bellini’s portrait of Mehmed II depicts a Conqueror and it suggests immense wealth. See the jewels, the ornate frame and the little crowns. Merchants travelled to the East to purchase its spices, its coffee and its fabrics. There was so much beauty to the East and there was opulence and mystery. It could be that we do not study the Orient sufficiently, but will the Orient ever reveal itself?

The knowledge crusaders took from the East was mostly scientific: algebra, architecture, medical practices, not to mention Arabic numerals…

Love to everyone. ♥

Mozart‘s Rondo alla Turca, Sonata 11, K331 (330i)
Paul Barton (piano)

800px-marco_polo_il_milione_chapter_cxxiii_and_cxxiv

Il Milione (Polo & Rustichello)

© Micheline Walker
18 September 2016
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Natural Histories

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Bestiaries, Illuminated Manuscripts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Books of Hours, Christianity, David Badke, Illuminated Manuscripts, Lists of Historians, Marco Polo, Natural Histories, The Golden Legend, The Physiologus

m_03
Livre d’images de madame Marie Hainaut, vers 1285-1290 Paris, BnF, Naf 16251, fol. 22v. La naissance du Christ est annoncée aux bergers, aux humbles. “Et voici qu’un ange du seigneur leur apparut [.]. Ils furent saisis d’une grande frayeur. Mais l’ange leur dit : “Ne craignez point, car je vous annonce une bonne nouvelle [.]” (The Birth of Christ announced to the Shepherds) (Photo credit: the National Library of France [BnF])

 —ooo—

Introduction

I am providing you with a list of natural historians. There are other historians than those I have listed. Moreover, some of the authors of Medieval Bestiaries were historians. My sources are the Medieval Bestiary and Wikipedia.

The Contents of Natural Histories

Nature included not only animals, plants, flowers, but “the moon, stars, and the zodiac, the sun, the planets, the seasons and the calendar[.]” (Vincent de Beauvais). I have already noted that our humble calendars were cultural monuments. Jean de France’s Livre d’heures (Book of Hours) is probably the chief example of humanity’s need to chronicle its hours and the labours of the months. Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry and the Book of Kells are genuine treasures. The beauty of the Book of Kells never ceases to amaze me. It is always new. As for Jean de France, Duc de Berry’s Livre d’heures, it is also an extremely beautiful book and it features the zodiac, thereby attesting to the continuity between “paganism” and Christianity.

The Testimonial of Explorers: Marco Polo

The authors of the Natural Histories relied to a large extent on the testimonial of earlier natural historians, which did not make for accuracy, but was acceptable in the Middle Ages. Predecessors were masters one strove to equal. Marco Polo‘s (15 September 1254 – 8–9 January 1324) Book of the Marvels of the World (Le Livre des merveilles du monde), c. 1300, was also a source for natural historians who lived during Marco Polo’s lifetime and afterwards.

Marco Polo, however, did not have a camera and it would appear that few artists accompanied him. His descriptions could therefore be edited. Discovering trade routes, the silk road, was a more important mission for him than cataloguing animals. Last September (2014), it was suggested that Marco Polo discovered America. (See The Telegraph.)

The Bestseller of the Middle Ages: The Golden Legend

Although Natural Histories listed mythical animals and much lore, I would not dismiss the accounts of the natural historians of Greece, Rome, early Christianity, and the Christian Middle Ages. Their books reveal various steps in our history. For instance, the bestseller of the Middle Ages was Jacobus de Voragine’s (c. 1230 – 13 or 16 July 1298) Golden Legend, which contained mostly inaccurate hagiographies (lives of saints). Although it was rather fanciful, it served as mythology and humans need mythologies. They need to trace their roots.

Claudius Alienus’ On the Characteristics of Animals is available in print: Book 1, Book 2. But it may be read online at Internet Archive (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3). So are other books. For my purposes, On the Characteristics of Animals (EN) was extremely useful. It is the natural history I used when I prepared my course on Beast Literature.

lat_8878_014
Beatus de Saint-Sever. Manuscrit copié à Saint-Sever, XIe siècle, avant 1072 BnF, Manuscrits, Latin 8878 fol. 14 (An “historiated” letter: note the “eternal” knots and Renart standing on its back legs.) (Photo credit: the National Library of France [BnF]) 
Guillaume de Machaut, Rondeaux. Manuscrit copié à Reims, vers 1373-1377.  BnF, Manuscrits, Français 1584 fol. 478
Guillaume de Machaut, Rondeaux. Manuscrit copié à Reims, vers 1373-1377.
BnF, Manuscrits, Français 1584 fol. 478 (Renart sits inside an historiated initial.) (Photo credit: BnF)

Natural Histories

Among historians, we can name:

  • Aelian (Claudius Alieanus) (c. 175 – c. 235 CE);
  • Æsop’s Fables (620 and 560 BCE);
  • Saint Ambrose (c. 340 – 4 April 397), Bishop of Milan;
  • Augustine of Hippo or St Augustine (13 November 354 CE – 28 August 430);
  • John Chrysostom c. 347 – 407);
  • Gervaise (end of 12th century), Bayeux, a Bestiaire);
  • Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald of Wales or Gerald de Barri) (c. 1146 – c. 1223);
  • Guillaume le Clerc (early 13th century), Anglo-Norman, Bestiaire divin, written around 1210 or 1211);
  • Hugh of Fouilloy (early 12th century), Anglo-Norman, Livre des Créatures, or Liber de Creatures, c. 1119, De avibus [birds]); 
  • Hugh of Saint Victor
  • Hrabanus Maurus (c. 780-856), Archbishop of Mainz, De rerum naturis (On the Nature of Things), or De universo, an encyclopedia in 22 books, written between 842 and 847);
  • Isidore of Seville (St. Isidore) (c. 560 – 4 April 636 CE), Archbishop of Seville, Etymologiæ;
  • Lambert of Saint-Omer (c. 1061 – 1250), Liber floridus (“book of flowers”), Le Livre fleurissant en fleurs;
  • Lucan (3 November 39 CE – 20 April 65 CE), Roman, Pharsalia (unfinished);
  • Jacob van Maerlant (c. 1235 – 1291), greatest Flemish poet of the Middle Ages, Der Naturen Bloeme, a translation in Middle Dutch of Thomas of Cantimpré’s Liber de Natura Rerum;
  • Konrad von Megenberg (early 14th century), Bavaria, studied in Paris, Das Buch der Natur, his source was Thomas of Cantimpré;
  • Ovid (20 March 43 BC – 17/18 BCE), the author of the Metamorphoses;
  • Philippe de Thaon (early 13th century), Anglo-Norman writer, Livre des Créatures, or Liber de Creatures;
  • the author of the anonymous Physiologus;
  • Pliny the Elder (23 CE – 24 or 25 August 79 CE), Naturalis Historia (mentioned below);
  • Strabo (63/64 BCE – c. 24 CE), Greek, Geographica;
  • Theophrastus (c. 370 – 285 BCE), Enquiry into Plants (9 books), On the Causes of Plants (six books) (Theophrastus will be discussed separately);
  • Thomas of Cantimpré (early 13th century, Brussels), Liber de Natura Rerum (19 books in 1228, 20 books in 1244);
  • Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190 – 1264?), a French Dominican friar, Speculum [mirror] naturale. His Speculum Maius was the main encyclopedia used in the Middle Ages.
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is vincent_de_beauvais.jpg
Vincent de Beauvais (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bestiary.ca

My list is the Medieval Bestiary‘s list. It can be found by clicking on Bestiary.ca. The following authors are fascinating:

  • Pliny the Elder (23 CE – 79 CE) wrote a Naturalis Historia, a History of Nature. Pliny died in the eruption of Vesuvius, on 24 August 79 CE. Accounts differ. Pliny the Elder may have been studying the eruption, but he was also trying to rescue friends. Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder’s nephew, wrote two letters on the eruption of Vesuvius that he sent to Tacitus. Pliny the Younger was a witness to the eruption of Vesuvius, but survived. (See Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, and Tacitus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.)
  • Claudius Alienus (c. 175 – c. 235 CE) known as Aelian, is the author of On the Characteristics of Animals. Aelian, however, used written sources, one of which was Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. Aelian told how beavers castrate themselves to escape hunters. As mentioned above, Aelian’s On the Characteristics of Animals is an Internet Archive publication Book 1, Book 2, Book 3. (See Claudius Alienus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Allegorical Illuminated Manuscripts: the Medieval Bestiaries (20 February 2013)
  • The Book of Kells Revisited (17 March 2013) ♥
  • Books of Hours, a Rich Legacy (8 February 2013)
  • Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (21 December 2012)
  • Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend (6 February 2012)
  • The Fitzwilliam Book of Hours (20 November 2011)
  • The Book of Kells (18 November 2011)

Sources and Resources

  • The Medieval Bestiary or Bestiary.ca (David Badke)
  • Beast Index (David Badke) in Bestiary.ca
  • Dogs, The Medieval Bestiary
  • Aelian’s On the Characteristics of Animals is an Internet Archive publication. (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3).
  • List of “naturalists” or historians who wrote Natural Histories: Bestiary.ca

My kindest regards to all of you.

—ooo—

Guillaume de Machaut – Complainte: Tels rit au matin qui au soir pleure (Le Remède de Fortune) (He laughs in the morning who cries when evening comes)   

 

Beatus de Saint-Sever. Manuscrit copié à Saint-Sever, XIe siècle, avant 1072  BNF, Manuscrits, Latin 8878 fol. 14
© Micheline Walker
3 October 2014
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,477 other followers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Language Laws in Quebec: Bill 96
  • From the Rurik Dynasty to the first Romanov
  • Uvalde: Analysis Paralysis
  • The Second Amendment to the American Constitution: a Misunderstanding
  • The Rurikid Princes & the Tsardom of Russia
  • The Decline of Kievan Rus’
  • Ilya Repin, Ivan IV and his son Ivan on 16 November 1581, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
  • Ukraine’s Varangian Princes, its Primary Chronicle, the Russkaya Pravda …
  • Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a Cossack Hetman
  • Ruthenia vs Ukraine

Archives

Calendar

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

A WordPress.com Website.

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,477 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: