Staging a Christian World and Shaping the “Orient(s)” in the Apostolic Palace (ca. 1560–1630)

What is it about?

In this article, I examine how objects from the “Orient” were incorporated, displayed, and reinterpreted within the Vatican Apostolic Palace during the Renaissance (ca. 1560–1630), drawing on largely unpublished primary sources. I reconstruct the contents and settings of the papal apartment, cabinets of curiosities and treasures, as well as the Vatican Library and the Holy See’s treasure in Castel Sant’Angelo. The study shows how artefacts and natural marvels from Asia—alongside objects from the Americas and Africa—were displayed and reframed within new visual and intellectual schemes that promoted the papacy’s Christian vision of an expanding global world. While the article focuses in particular on the reception of Japan and China, it also considers the place of the Ottoman Empire within these dynamics.

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Photo by Lin Mei on Unsplash

Photo by Lin Mei on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is the first study to examine the modes of conservation and display of non-Western artefacts in the Apostolic Palace during the early modern period—collections that have since been dispersed. It identifies and contextualizes key objects, such as gifts presented by the first Japanese embassies to the Holy See, and offers pathways for recovering this largely lost heritage that once crossed the oceans, and which remains significant for several communities today. More broadly, the article clarifies the role of Asian objects as cultural, political and spiritual mediators in the early modern West, and considers the implications of these processes for Western perceptions of Asia.

Perspectives