AHIS 499 – Encounters and transformations: art across cultures in the early modern world
Dr. Daniela Bleichmar
bleichma@usc.edu
Office hours: Tues. 11am-noon, or by appointment
Fall 2005
Tues. & Thurs., 9.30-10.50am
VKC 379
Course description
This seminar will examine the cultural and artistic exchange between Europe, Asia, and the Americas in the
early modern period (1450-1800). We will examine the ways in which a wide range of visual materials and
artifacts—including paintings, drawings, prints, books, written accounts, decorative objects, furniture,
textiles, etc.—participated in the experience of encounter, exchange, interpretation, and representation
among different and often distant cultures. Some of the contexts we will discuss include exploration and
travel, trade, exoticism, religious encounters, and colonialism. Our approach will combine art history, cultural
history, and anthropology in order to examine images and artifacts not as isolated aesthetic statements but
as historical sources, investigating what they can tell us about the cultural, social, and intellectual life of the
people who produced and consumed them.
Through multiple reading and writing assignments, this seminar will emphasize the methods and practices
of historical work and prepare students for independent research work. Discussion will focus on the
interpretation and analysis of documents, the framing of historical questions, and the construction of
narrative and historical explanation. Readings will include recent secondary sources and selected primary
texts and images used as case studies. All readings will be in English.
Requirements
Class participation and attendance:
20% of grade
The format of the course will be a discussion seminar, which means that we all need to show up to every
session having studied all of the materials for that meeting (whether they be texts or images), having
thought about them, and being ready to participate in the discussion. I can’t emphasize this enough: simply
being physically present in the room will not be acceptable. An active engagement with the material will be
necessary for the seminar to be effective and will be expected from all participants.
Attendance to the seminar is required, and a sign-up sheet will be circulated each meeting. If you know that
you will have a conflict for any session, talk to me in advance so that if at all possible we can arrange a way
for you to make up that work. You will forfeit this portion of the grade if you miss more than one class
without acceptable documentation (letter from physician, health center, or the Dean, etc.).
As part of lass participation, a student will be responsible for leading discussion every session. This will
consist of a briefy summary of the reading’s main points and arguments and a few questions to get us
started, and should not represent a significant amount of work beyond that of preparing the reading for the
session. (It is also a way of ensuring that every student participates frequently in class, and thus will help
you improve this portion of the grade.)
Oral reports and presentations:
30% of grade
In addition to active class participation, oral reports and presentations compose a significant element of the
seminar, hence of the final grade for the course. There will be three oral activities (each worth 10% of the
grade).
1. Oral reports: On previously scheduled dates throughout the semester, students will take turns giving brief
oral reports on topics that complement that week’s readings. I will provide suggestions of appropriate
1/8
AHIS499
Syllabus
2/8
materials, but students may also present on subjects of their own choosing if they clear them with the
professor at least a week before their presentation.
2. First oral presentation: On the sixth week of the course, students will give oral presentations based on
individual research projects on early modern travel narratives. In preparation for these presentations,
students will spend the class time of the previous week conducting individual research with rare books in the
Special Collections at Doheny Library. Before this, we will visit that collection as a class and have an
introduction to the materials and to conducting primary research with rare books.
3. Final oral presentation: The last week of term will be dedicated to presentations of final papers. Each
student will discuss the theme of their paper and share questions and findings from their research.
Written responses to readings:
20% of grade
Writing is the other crucial element of this course, and for that reason students will be asked to respond to
the readings in writing on a weekly basis. The significant writing load in this course has been designed to
meet several goals: it will help you to reflect on the readings before coming to class and thus help prepare
you to participate actively in the discussion; it will allow you to identify points that you find particularly
interesting, difficulty, or problematic so that we can be sure to address them in class; and it will help train
you for the final paper. There will be two types of written assignments:
1. Questions about the readings for class discussion on Tuesdays: Students will turn in a few questions
about the reading assignment at the beginning of class every Tuesday. These can be hand-written or
printed out. This is an informal and fast exercise designed to help students prepare for class, and should not
add substantially to the work load. If you mark the readings (underlining, writing keywords on the margin,
etc.), when you’re done with them you can go back to your notes and use them to produce a few questions.
Questions can be used to explore unclear or difficult points, connect a particular text or image to other works
from that week or previous weeks, etc. Think of these questions as the starting point for class discussion
every week.
2. Response papers: Students will submit a one-page response to the week’s reading every Thursday. This
short assignment should draw on all the readings for the week, the questions you submitted for the previous
class, and our discussion.
Final paper:
30% of grade
The final requirement for the seminar consists of a 12- to 15-page research paper analyzing and interpreting
both primary materials (texts, images, and/or objects) and secondary literature. This paper will represent the
culmination of our discussions and of your research this semester. You could center the paper around an
artist, a genre, a medium, a place, a time, or a thematic issue. We will meet to discuss possible topics, and I
will be very happy to help you by suggesting potential topics and bibliography, or in any way I can.
The final paper should be well written and researched with appropriate documentation (footnotes,
bibliography, reproductions of images). It should not be a first draft but a finished piece of research and
writing, with well-developed ideas, argument, structure, and tone, and demonstrate both independent
thought and a thoughtful engagement with the materials and issues discussed throughout the seminar.
All written assignments must be printed in standard fonts and typesize, double-spaced, on 8½” x 11” paper,
with 1” margins. Your work should always be spell-checked and proofread. Deadlines are firm. Deviating
from these guidelines will adversely affect your grade. If you have any questions about paper format or
methods, please let me know, and I will be very happy to review them with you.
AHIS499
Syllabus
3/8
Readings
Although there is no single textbook that covers the topic of this seminar, we will use the following exhibition
catalogue (available at the Campus Bookstore) as a guide to the subject:
Jaffer, Amin and Anna Jackson (eds.), Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800
(London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2004).
A course reader containing all reading assignments will be available for purchase at Magic Machine. All
readings will also be placed on reserve at Leavey Library, as will be exhibition catalogues to be consulted as
reference sources.
Seminar schedule
WEEK 1 (Aug. 23 and 25): Introduction to the seminar
Reading assignment for Thurs. Aug. 25th:
Encounters, pp. 1-11, 32-71
WEEK 2 (Aug. 30 and Sept. 1) : New goods in an expanded world: mapping a global Renaissance
Reading assignment for Tues. Aug. 30th:
Brotton, Jerry, The Renaissance Bazaar. From the Silk Road to Michelangelo (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2002), pp. 1-61 and timeline
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Sept. 1st.:
Brotton, Jerry, The Renaissance Bazaar, pp. 154-183
Encounters, pp. 14-31
Student report: The Nuremberg chronicle.
Schedel, Hartmann, Chronicle of the world: the complete and annotated Nuremberg chronicle of
1493, with an introduction and appendix by Stephan Füssel (New York: Taschen, 2001)
Student Report: The Sailor’s Life
A.H.H. de Oliveira Marques, “Travelling with the Fifteenth-century Discoverers: Their Daily Life,” in
Anthony Disney and Booth, Emily, (eds.), Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia
(New York and New Delhi, 2000), pp. 30-47
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 3 (Sept. 6 and 8): Exploring the world and establishing trade empires
Reading assignment for Tues. Sept. 6th:
Encounters, pp. 74-101 and 126-155
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Sept. 8th:
Encounters, pp. 156-187
Student Report: Views of Japan
Kaempfer, Englebert, Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed, edited, translated and
annotated by Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey (Honolulu, 1999)
AHIS499
Syllabus
4/8
Cooper, Michael, They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543-1640,
(Berkeley and Los Angeles,1965)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 4 (Sept. 13 and 15): Early tales of travel and encounter
Reading assignment for Tues. Sept. 13th:
Peter C. Mancall (ed.), Sixteenth-Century Travel Narratives: An Anthology (New York: Oxford
University Press, forthcoming 2005), Introduction
And a selection from among the following excerpts of travel narratives (most of them from Mancall’s
anthology), to be distributed among the students:
1. Komroff, Manuel (ed.), The travels of Marco Polo, edited and revised from William
Marsden's translation, with an introduction by Jason Goodwin (New York: Modern Library,
2001), prologue and selected chapters
Look at images from manuscript Livre des merveilles (Boucicaut Master, France, ca. 1410),
held at Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MSS. FR 2810:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/Catalogue/noticesInd/MAN01187.htm
2. Vasco da Gama
3. Cristopher Columbus
4. Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s Voyage
5. John Huighen van Linschoten, Discourse of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies
6. Christopher Columbus to Luis de Santángel, Announcing His Discovery (1493)
7. Hernán Cortés, Letters from Mexico
8. Hans Staden, The Captivity of Hans Staden of Hesse Among the Wild Tribes of Eastern
Brazil (1547-1555)
9. Jean De Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (1578)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Sept. 15th:
Burke, Peter, “The Philosopher as Traveller: Bernier’s Orient,” in Jaś Elsner and Joan-Pau
Rubiés (eds.), Voyages and visions: towards a cultural history of travel (London: Reaktion
Books, 1999), pp. 124-137
Visit, Thurs. Sept. 15th.: Special Collections, Doheny Library
WEEK 5 (Sept. 20 and 22): Individual research projects: travel narratives
During this week, students will conduct individual research on early modern travel narratives in the
Special Collections room at Doheny Library. A bibliography of suggested books will be provided the
previous week.
WEEK 6 (Sept. 27 and 29): Depicting and imagining others
Tues. Sept. 27th: Presentations of Individual Research Projects (meet at Special Collections).
Reading assignment for Thurs. Sept. 29th:
Encounters, pp. 188-219 and pp. 330-359
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
AHIS499
Syllabus
5/8
WEEK 7 (Oct. 4 and 6): The Dutch East India Company (VOC)
Reading assignment for Tues. Oct. 4th:
John Huighen van Linschoten, “Discourse of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies,” in Peter C.
Mancall (ed.), Sixteenth-Century Travel Narratives: An Anthology (New York: Oxford University
Press, forthcoming 2005), pp. 255-277
Schmidt, Benjamin, “Inventing Exoticism: The Project of Dutch Geography and the Marketing of the
World, circa 1700," in Paula Findlen and Pamela H. Smith (eds.), Merchants and Marvels:
Commerce and the Representation of Nature in Early Modern Europe (London, 2002), pp. 347-369
Zanvliet, Kees, (ed.), The Dutch Encounter with Asia 1600-1950, Rijksmuseum, exhibition
catalogue (Amsterdam, 2002), pp. 30-75, look through catalogue entries
Student Report: Albert Eckhout
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Oct.6th:
Zanvliet, Kees, (ed.), The Dutch Encounter with Asia 1600-1950, Rijksmuseum, exhibition
catalogue (Amsterdam, 2002), pp. 175-263
Student Report: Maria Sybilla Merian
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 8 (Oct. 11 and 13): The Jesuits
Reading assignment for Tues. Oct. 11th:
Ricci, Matteo,”A Discourse of the Kingdome of China,” in Peter C. Mancall (ed.), Sixteenth-Century
Travel Narratives: An Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2005), pp. 241254
Bailey, Gauvin, A., Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542-1773 (Toronto and
Buffalo, 1999), pp. 82-111
Student Report: Giuseppe Castiglione
Beurdeley, Cécile and Michel, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit painter at the Court of the Chinese
Emperors (London, 1972)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Oct. 11th:
Bailey, Gauvin, A., Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542-1773 (Toronto and
Buffalo, 1999), pp. 144-198
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 9 (Oct. 18 and 20): Asian Art for European Consumption
Reading assignment for Tues. Oct. 18th:
Encounters, pp. 222-261
Student Report: Lacquer
AHIS499
Syllabus
6/8
Mendes Pinto, Maria Helena, Namban Lacquerware in Portugal: The Portuguese presence in
Japan (1543-1639) (Lisbon, 1990)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Oct. 20th:
Encounters, pp. 261-283
Student Report: Company Painting
Archer, Mildred, Company paintings: Indian paintings of the British period (London 1992)
Student Report: Textiles
Guy, J., Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East, exhibition catalogue, (London, 1998)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 10 (Oct. 25 and 27): Porcelain
Reading assignment for Tues. Oct. 25th:
Emerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, and Mimi Gardner Gates (eds.), Porcelain stories: from China to
Europe (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum and University of Washington Press, 2000), pp. 11-13,
24-33, 71-81, 100-111
Student Report: Mounted Porcelain
Watson, F.J.B., Wilson, Gillian, and Derham, Anthony, Mounted oriental porcelain in the J. Paul
Getty Museum (Malibu, Calif.: The Museum, 1982)
Watson, F.J.B., Mounted Oriental porcelain (Washington, D.C.: International Exhibitions
Foundation, 1986)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Oct. 27th:
Emerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, and Mimi Gardner Gates (eds.), Porcelain stories: from China to
Europe, pp. 134-151, 194-207, 252-261, 281-282
Student Report: Japanese Porcelain
Ayers, John, Oliver Impey, and J.V.G. Mallet, Porcelain for Palaces. The Fashion for Japan in
Europe, 1650-1750, exhibition catalogue (London: Oriental Ceramic Society, 1990)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 11 (Nov. 1 and 3): Imagining the East: Chinoiserie
Reading assignment for Tues. Nov. 1st.:
Jacobson, Dawn, Chinoiserie (London: Phaidon Press, 1993), pp. 30-87
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Nov. 3rd.:
Jacobson, Dawn, Chinoiserie (London: Phaidon Press, 1993), pp. 88-149
AHIS499
Syllabus
7/8
Student Report: Chinoiserie gardens
Jacobson, Dawn, “Chinoiserie in the Landscape,” in Chinoiserie (London: Phaidon Press, 1993),
pp. 150-175
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 12 (Nov. 8 and 10): European art and technology in China
Reading assignment for Tues. Nov. 8th:
Encounters, pp 296-309
Pagani, Catherine, in 'Eastern Magnificence and European Ingenuity': Clocks of Late Imperial
China (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2001), ch. 3, pp. 99-170
Student Report: European palaces in China
Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens, Michèle, 'The Emperor Qianlong's European Palaces', Orientations,
(November 1988), volume 19, no. 11, pp. 61-71
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Nov. 10th:
Option 1:
Ledderose, Lothar, “Chinese Influence on European Art, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries,” in
Thomas H.C. Lee (ed.), China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1991), pp. 221-249
OR
Kao, Mayching, “European Influences in Chinese Art, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries,” in
Thomas H.C. Lee (ed.), China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1991), pp. 251-303
Option 2:
Sullivan, Michael, The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art from the Sixteenth Century to the
Present Day (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973), pp. 46-114
Discussion leader (Option 1): ____________________________________________
Discussion leader (Option 2): ____________________________________________
WEEK 13 (Nov. 15 and 17): European art and technology in Japan
Reading assignment for Tues. Nov. 15th:
Encounters, pp. 310-329
Screech, Timon, The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens
within the Heart (Cambridge, 1996), chapters 1 and 2
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
Reading assignment for Thurs. Nov. 17th:
Screech, Timon, The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens
within the Heart (Cambridge, 1996), chapters 3 and 4
AHIS499
Syllabus
8/8
Student Report: Shiba Kōkan
French, Calvin L., Shiba Kōkan: artist, innovator, and pioneer in the westernization of Japan (New
York: Weatherhill, 1974)
Discussion leader: ____________________________________________
WEEK 14 (Nov. 22): Exhibiting cultural exchange
PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO CLASS NOV. 24, THANKSGIVING BREAK
Visit to local museum and discussion with curators.
WEEK 15 (Nov. 29 and Dec. 1): Student presentations