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The Role of the Netherlands in
the “Tupinambization” of
Early-Modern European
Collections
Amy Buono, University of
California, Santa Barbara
The Tupinambá of coastal Brazil
were among the earliest New World
cultures encountered by Europeans.
In this presentation I will discuss
the 16th- and 17th-century
Tupinambá feathered capes now
located in Copenhagen
(Nationalmuseet Etnografisk
Samling) and Brussels
(Musées Royale d’Art et d’>
Histoire) as examples of the
key role played by the Low
Countries in the early-modern
acquisition and dissemination of
knowledge concerning Brazil. A
close material, cultural and
archival analysis of these
Dutch-procured Brazilian objects
held in early-modern
Kunstkammern helps resituate
a culture that had a profound
effect on European perceptions of
the New World.
In particular, I wish to consider
how the Copenhagen and Brussels
capes reveal the process by which
exotica objects entered European
collections via major trading
networks. Within Europe’s
early-modern Kunstkammern
tradition, the Netherlands had a
key role in the establishment of a
Brazilian material and visual
identity in Europe. Count Johan
Maurits of Nassau-Siegen’s brief
colonization of Pernambuco, Brazil
(1630-1654) helped establish an
ongoing cultural exchange of visual
material and artifacts that
eventually led to the royal gift of
Tupi artifacts to King Frederick
III of Denmark upon his return to
European soil. Copenhagen’s
ethnographic museum now houses the
largest repository of Tupi
artifacts in the world. Nassau’s
involvement in the trade and
dissemination of Brazilian culture
may also be responsible for the
Brussels piece. However, recently
discovered archival material
suggests the possibility that the
Brussels cape could also have
arrived via Antwerp mercantile
traders on the coast of Brazil.
These vast networks of material
exchange represent an important
part of understanding the colonial
process and the role of Non-western
art and artifacts in the
pre-history of European ethnography
and natural history.
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