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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 6
Lesson 1: A beginner's guide- An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the sixteenth century
- Inventing “America” for Europe: Theodore de Bry
- Theodor de Bry, “Their sitting at meate”
- Johannes Stradanus and Theodoor Galle, “The Discovery of America”
- A Renaissance miniature in wood and feathers
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A Renaissance miniature in wood and feathers
A conversation between Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris in front of a pendant triptych with scenes of the Passion, 16th century, boxwood, feathers, gold, enamel, 4.4 x 4.4 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Created by Beth Harris, Smarthistory, and Steven Zucker.
Video transcript
(soft music) - [Narrator] We're in the galleries at The Metropolitan Museum
of Art in the Spanish Court and we're looking at a tiny object. I can't imagine how this
was made by human hands. This is a pendant triptych. By pendant we mean something that hung, likely on a chain of some sort, and so we can see the loop at the top. And it's a triptych in
that when it was opened, it has three parts to it. - [Narrator] This pendant triptych is actually showing scenes from the Passion or the final
hours in the life of Jesus. And it is what is called a microcarving, in that the carvings here made of boxwood, which was native to the
Mediterranean region are done in miniature. Besides the boxwood, there's another material
that makes this object even more precious, and that
is that, when it was made sometime in the first
half of the 16th century, small pieces of iridescent feathers, likely hummingbird feathers, were glued in the background
of the different scenes. - [Narrator] We have this gold
object that is embellished on the outside with enamel. But when it was opened, it
must've seemed miraculous because you had this tiny carving, but these brightly colored
feathers behind it. So you almost, I imagine, had the sense of looking at something
heavenly, almost divine. - [Narrator] Boxwood carving
was popular in northern Europe, in the late middle ages and
especially in the 16th century, but this object is most likely created in Mexico in the 16th century. - [Narrator] And we guessed that because of the hummingbird feathers. - [Narrator] This object really speaks to some of the monumental changes that are happening on a global
scale in the 16th century as the result of European colonization. - [Narrator] Spanish
Conquistador, Hernan Cortes goes to Mexico and conquers the Aztecs and other peoples in Mexico. And they saw this indigenous
art form of featherwork. - [Narrator] And so with
these transformations, some things cease to exist
or they're eradicated, but then other things continue, and some things are modified. Feather-working continues
after the Spanish conquest, but the subject matter is what transforms. So instead of it being subject matter that you would see prior
to the Spanish conquest, we now have it in the service
often of Catholic artwork. - [Narrator] And feathers
being an organic material, they haven't survived very well. - [Narrator] It's very
hard to see the remains of the iridescent feathers
that would have been glued to the background of this microcarving. - [Narrator] And yet despite the lack of that vibrant background
that used to be here, when we look at this we can immediately recognize
standard Christian subjects that appear in so many
16th century works of art. - [Narrator] In this
traditional passion narrative, we actually start on the
right top of the triptych. It starts with the Agony in the Garden, where Christ has a vision of
what's going to happen to him. Below that we have the Flagellation where Christ is being whipped. Then we have Christ brought
before Pontius Pilate. And then on the top left, we have Christ carrying the cross. And then in the center, which is where you have the
largest of these micro carvings, we have the Crucifixion. And we see Jesus in the center,
flanked by the two thieves, and then individuals on the
bottom, likely Mary and others, who are kneeling at the base of the cross. - [Narrator] And despite
their tiny, tiny size, we can read their gestures, their emotion. - [Narrator] That this would have been a private devotional object, it's a luxury object made
of expensive materials. Jewelry was one way that people used to get around sumptuary laws, or laws that were put into place to restrict people from showing
off their wealth in public. - [Narrator] So this is
likely made in Mexico, and we know that feathers were often associated with sacrifice. - [Narrator] Among the Nahua
peoples of central Mexico for instance, such as say,
the Aztecs or the Mexica, feathers did have this
association with sacrifice. - [Narrator] And perhaps that's the reason why we see feathers used in
the background of this scene. There's some transformation of meaning that occurs with the same medium. - [Narrator] So it would
have made in natural parallel to the sacrifice of Jesus. And most likely the feathers glued here would have been done
by an indigenous artist whose name we don't know any longer. Feathers were also luxury
objects in Mesoamerica prior to the arrival of Europeans, so that this is an of
itself a luxury object. - [Narrator] So it's really interesting to think about all the different media that are coming together
here, the boxwood, the featherwork, but also
the different cultures. - [Narrator] You have not only
the many indigenous artists who are already in the
Americas, but you also have many different types of
artists coming from Europe. So these itinerant artists
coming from places like Spain, Flanders and elsewhere, who
are crossing the Atlantic, who are then coming to
places like New Spain, and are training indigenous artists in these European techniques. So we don't know whether
or not this microcarving was done by a Flemish artist
or an indigenous artist, or if it was a collaboration
between a group of people. But what we can say is that there is this interesting combination
of techniques and forms that are speaking to this globalized world in the 16th century. (upbeat music)