The Fruits of the Loom: Cosmopolitanism Through the Eyes of the Commissioner

Abstract: This paper explores the concept of politicizing cosmopolitanism in global textiles during the early modern period. It focuses on four different textiles, one from Italy, one from China, and two from India that speak to the visualization of cosmopolitanism between the 16th and 17th centuries. Just after the Age of Discovery, this time period is particularly important in analyzing depictions of cultural “othering.” Looking at these pieces together creates a historical contemporaneity that helps to unveil patterns of the trope of cosmopolitanism. While different cross-cultural depictions exist in each of the four textiles, looking at them together paints a more global picture of the different tactics commissioners used at the time to gain political power, show admiration and “worldliness”, celebrate the globalization of trade, and campaign imperial desires. Ultimately, the uses of the visualization of cosmopolitanism differ, but the controlled narrative by the commissioners and/or buyers of each piece is apparent.

Citation: Spencer, Morgan.  “The Fruits of the Loom: Cosmopolitanism Through the Eyes of the Commissioner.” The Jugaad Project, 26 Jul. 2020, thejugaadproject.pub/cosmopolitanism-textiles [date of access]

Textiles made during the early modern era can tell much about the social relationships of travelers, foreigners, and how the cultural “other” is addressed in a particular society where often written history lacks detailed accounts. Textiles are visual representations that can denote either difference from, or acceptance into, a social grouping: a cosmopolitanism or an ostracism. According to Pnina Werbner, “at its most basic, cosmopolitanism is about reaching out across cultural differences through dialogue, aesthetic enjoyment, and respect, of living together with difference” (Werbner 2008, 3). Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries empire building, and mercantilism, textiles not only represented a bourgeois buying power and domination over the “other” but also enabled cultural groups to connect with one another and create alliances, and helped political regimes maintain power through unity and cosmopolitanism. As Pearson has argued, “cosmopolitanism can be seen as a normative “goal,” to live in peace with one another” perhaps even creating a wider unity when confronted with social diversity (Pearson 2017, 17). Mute visual representations in houses, on bodies, and on qanat tent hangings demonstrated a wider rationalization and acceptance of differing sociocultural groups. This essay will explore four different pre-modern textiles, one from Italy, one from China, and two from India, that tie into the visualization of cosmopolitanism between the 16th and 17th centuries.

In using textiles as a tool for looking at social interactions during this era, I will utilize a framework based on the work of the late Edward Said, a prominent voice in the field of postcolonial studies and the author of Orientalism. While his theory of cultural interaction is developed in relation to studies of the East and West during 20th century imperialism, the theory of human nature and visual representation brought forth in his work is crucial to my argument about early modernity. Rather than analyzing artistic pieces that patronize cultural “otherness” in order to dominate and infantilize, this paper will analyze how certain textile makers reacted to cultural difference by creating visual alliances. Said noted of Orientalism, “to say simply that Orientalism was a rationalization of colonial rule is to ignore the extent to which colonial rule was justified in advance by Orientalism” (Said 1978, 39). Considering the time frame, this paper postulates that visual alliances were not only used to justify colonial rule, but that they also worked to reconcile differences in order to create peace,whether this be due to altruistic or political motivations. Said’s work defines and explains the semiotics of visualization as a political instrument: here, I argue that acceptance and cosmopolitanism are also used to dominate by maintaining peace or trade alliances in various regions. According to Said, “there is nothing mysterious or natural about authority. It is formed, irradiated, disseminated; it is instrumental, it is persuasive; it has status, it establishes canons of taste and value; it is virtually indistinguishable from certain ideas as it dignifies as true, and from traditions, perceptions, and judgments it dorms, transmits, and reproduces” (Said 1978, 19-20). Textiles are a curious example of visual authority, as global wealth and exploration resulted in the commissioning of particular textile techniques that were unique to certain geographies and/or cultural groups. Early modern global trade was not only dominated by spices and foods, but also by the loom. Therefore social consciousness of the time both formed and was formed by taste creators: those commissioning and creating textiles which showed social and political harmony between different national and racial groupings. While it is often difficult to trace the history of these unique displays of cosmopolitanism, the following four examples give some insight into how cosmopolitanism was used as a wider political tool by taste creators from different cultural backgrounds.

A Visual Alliance

Figure 1. Title: Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo with her son Giovanni. Creator: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo Tori). Date Created: 1544 – 1545. Physical Dimensions: w960 x h1150 mm. Location: The Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Catalog. No. 09 00021910.

This 1543 portrait by Bronzino was commissioned by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo di Medici I. It shows his son, Giovanni di Medici and his wife, Eleonora di Toledo, wearing one of the most famous textiles in Italian history. At this time, elite men often commissioned portraits of their wives, which displayed their family’s wealth and power. Elite women were used as a political tool in this way because men were unable to display outward frivolity for fear of it “corrupting their intellect.” This portrait has particular valency because of the use of gold thread in the cloth that Eleanora is wearing. Legislation passed by the Medici family in 1546, 1562 and again in 1568 reinforced the social order of dress through sumptuary laws (Langdon 2013, 71), targeting cloth with gold thread in particular. In this way, Eleonora’s dress in the portrait “marked her exemption from such laws and elevation above common humanity” (Langdon 2013, 71). The message was subtle, but important: at the time of Cosimo’s marriage to Eleonora in 1539, the Medici family was considered relatively “new money” having entered politics from the banking world. Further, Cosimo di Medici I was attempting to be knighted into the Order of the Golden Fleece: an exclusive fraternity whose membership was at the discretion of Emperor Charles V. Eleonora was Cosimo I’s route into creating some lasting political connections. She was from a wealthy Spanish family and had a blood tie with Charles V; thus, by marrying Eleonora, Cosimo could create a connection to Charles, and through him, to the Spanish aristocracy.

Eleonora was initially rejected by the public in Florence because of her Spanish heritage. The duchess was “viewed as a symbol of submersion of the national identity, and even the freedom, of the subjugated state of Florence” (Cox-Rearick 2009, 51). These views eventually mellowed, however, and she came to be viewed as a pious woman, a patron of the arts, who effectively managed the great tracts of land that she owned, and who was furthermore very charitable (Belotti 2017, 2). Eleonora even became the Regent of the State in 1541 during her husband’s several diplomatic absences. She often dressed alla spagnola or with Spanish influences; the dress she is wearing in Bronzino’s painting (1543) shows clear elements of Spanish style mixed with metaphors of the Medici family. On this dress, the rosette sleeve pins with a sharp point are quite obviously in the shape of the signature Medici diamonds. The laurel plant’s cut branches on her pendant and belt symbolize the “re-growth of the Medici line and their ability to return to the ducal throne with power” (Marsolek 2013, 3) Furthermore, the laurel was connected to the God Apollo, and could never be struck down by Jupiter’s lightning, but rather when struck would grow even more vigorously (Lewis 2010, 12). Cosimo I clearly had similar ideals for his reign, and Eleanora was the key to the growth of his family tree. The brocaded dress itself is made with white silk and adorned with black arabesques, and the many gold pomegranates emulate other traditionally Spanish garments and represent her fertility and role as a mother. The silk of her dress can be said to show the revival of the Florentine silk industry during this time - a feat of which Cosimo I was particularly proud. Considering the context, the political meaning, while not overt to a modern eye, would have been irrefutably apparent to a Renaissance Florentine.

These symbols of translocality, the pomegranates and brocade in particular, identified in the famous dress of Eleonora di Toledo did not solely end with her body, or even with the portrait by Bronzino. Cosimo I, as I have already noted, intended to elevate his social status through his marriage, and to gain membership of the Order of the Golden Fleece. We know that Cosimo I sent the leftover fabric from Eleonora’s dress to other diplomats all over Italy. According to fabric logs uncovered by the Palazzo Pitti and the Medici Archive Project, the black, velvet, and gold brocade gown required six different weaving processes and took over three years to make after Eleonora’s betrothal to Cosimo I; apparently, the final stages were completed very quickly because of a visit from the Emperor to the North. The Medici family had commissioned roughly 27 meters of the brocade from a manufacturer near Rezzo, Italy in 1540. The price paid was 390 gold scudi, which is valued today as roughly $48,000 (Wall Text, Palazzo Pitti 2017). According to historians at the Palazzo Pitti museum in Florence, the brocade would have been made into anything from drapes to other dresses for the wives of the giftee. The fabric would have been hung or worn with affection for Eleonora, but would also would have been seen as a political statement by any of the diplomats traveling to those relatives because of the connection to Eleonora’s portrait. Evidence in the Medici archival documents shows that Diego Ortava di Mendofa, the Ambassador of Rome and Governor of Sienna at the time, was one recipient of the fabric. However, he stated that the fabric was “unfit for his horse’s livery…it was more suitable for church things” (Wall Text, Palazzo Pitti 2017). Cosimo’s visual pledge of allegiance may not always have worked as he intended, but it certainly helped him to advance socially, and he was ordained into the Order of the Golden Fleece shortly after his strategic gift-giving. This form of visual symbolism created not only domestic, but international alliances for the Medici family through the connection to Eleanora’s Spanish heritage.

An Intimate Subversion

Figure 2. Title: Coverlet. Creator: China, for the European Market (location not known). Date Created: 17th Century (exact date not known). Physical Dimensions: w960 x h1150 mm. Accession No. 1975.208d. Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Prior to the European imitations of Chinese cultural symbols in art and design termed “Chinoiserie” the Chinese market actually produced commissions for the European market. One example of such commissions is the coverlet shown at Figure 2, which was displayed in the exhibition “Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The first Chinese silks arrived directly in Lisbon in 1518. By 1570, Spain had established its own direct silk trade with China via the port of Manila in the Philippines. By 1600, the Dutch East India Company had established an outpost in Taiwan. During the 17th century, Danish and English merchants began competing for Asian trade routes during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. European traders realized that they would be able to commission Chinese embroiderers to manufacture textiles to “a variety of specifications that would satisfy the demands of various groups within regional markets” (Brandt 2020, 5). Not only did the Chinese embroiderers add traditional Chinese characteristics to the pieces for export, but the embroiderers also copied famous European embroidered hangings such as the Story of Troy to appeal to the European market. Among the most celebrated were “embroidered textiles that exhibited characteristic late Ming dynasty naturalistic floral and faunal ornament” which can be seen in Figure 2 (Brandt 2020, 3). Rectangular panels like this coverlet were suitable for Chinese kang (daybed) covers, and their decoration often included a central medallion. The coverlet would have likely been hung and repurposed in a European home, rather than utilizing the original closeness of decor to the human body on a kang. Hanging the piece would have created a distance between the European buyer and the coverlet, rather than the daily interaction a Chinese family would have with the coverlet.

This particular coverlet displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art not only uses Chinese floral motifs, but also depicts Chinese figures in European style dress, which immediately triggers the thought of Said’s theory of Eurocentrism and domination of Chinese bodies. In the centre of the design we see a traditional dragon roundel with human figures around the perimeter. The figures wear breeches and doublets, a popular European style for men at the time. However, the Western garments also bear Chinese motifs: “one man has a dragon design on his doublet, while another’s costume shows a typically Asian auspicious motif of intersecting diamonds within a diagonal lattice. In addition, the men’s features -- including wispy mustaches and beards -- have an Asian character” (Metropolitan Museum of Art). According to the Met, the embroiderer may have intended to represent Portuguese gentlemen similar to the Japanese depiction of the Nanban screens showing the “barbarians” arriving in Japan. Considering that the Portuguese were amongst the first people to create overseas trade routes with China, the presumption that the figures could have been imitating specifically Portuguese dress is not farfetched. The design of the coverlet suggests the involvement of a European trader or client unfamiliar with the selection and placement of motifs in Chinese iconography.

According to historians at the Met, the coverlet reflects “the two disparate worlds of East and West and the contradictions that arose from the artistic exchange between them” (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Yet we might also see this piece from the perspective of historical cosmopolitanism. According to David Porter, a Postdoctoral Associate in East Asian Studies at Yale University, “If philosophical cosmopolitanism, rooted in the diogenesian call to world citizenship, evokes a moral universalism that requires us to regard all human beings as coming under the same broad moral standards, historical cosmopolitanism suggests a recognition of the contemporaneity of historical time across national and cultural boundaries” (Porter 2010, 299). According to Porter, rather than analyzing literature or arts as a way that Europeans viewed China as “backward, vulnerable, and somehow ‘orientalized’ space waiting to be conquered and controlled” it is important to understand that European writers and artists never forgot that they were inspired by the Chinese empire and economic supremacy (Porter 2010, 304). Commissioners of art from China would also not forget the “awe, admiration, and desire with respect to the material products and cultural achievements of an advanced and powerful Eastern civilization” (Porter 2010, 304). China functioned as “the locus for dreams of attaining a golden age of prosperity and abundance” (Porter 2010, 304). Approaching the coverlet at the Met through this lens, the figures in question may not represent the obvious fetishization of the European clothing wrapping and dominating the bodies of the Chinese figures, but instead could have been a celebration of the transcending of national boundaries and cosmopolitanism in trade and other relations. In turn, Porter argues that the erasure of Chinese history in Europe came after the early modern period as an act of “instrumental amnesia” in order to silence claims that England, or Europe as a whole, was not the imperial power. Porter states that along with that historical erasure came the erasure of “the memory of a more truly cosmopolitan early modern past” (Porter 2010, 305). Whether or not we approach this piece from the perspective of fetishization, or from historical cosmopolitanism, it is highly significant that it was commissioned by a European merchant and bought by European elites. It undoubtedly functioned as a marker of European conspicuous consumption and “worldliness” in a private collection, suggesting that the elite in this period were utilizing a sense of cosmopolitanism as a form of display.

A Market for Multifariousness

Figure 3. Title: Coverlet. Creator: Golconda Region (possibly Petaboli). Date Created: 17th Century (exact date not known). Physical Dimensions: 89 x 74 cm (with lining). Location: The National Museum, New Delhi.

The Coromandel Coast of southeastern India during the seventeenth century was a mecca for dyeing and painting workshops, particularly known for kalamkari designs, a type of hand painting done on cotton textiles using natural dyes. The “best and the rarest [textile designs] came from Golconda - from where the supply was further limited by demands imposed upon the Mughal and Deccani courts” (Lally 2009, 31). This particular textile was likely from the Golconda region just west of the Coromandel Coast. Golconda was a fort city in the Deccan Plateau that was the capital of the Qutb Shahi Sultanate from 1518 to 1590. Because of the absence of relations with north India since 1347 due to religious differences, the Deccani sultanates had to recruit “military and civil talent to run their kingdom…[resulting in] the influx of so many Persian-speaking Westerners virtual[ly] transform[ing] the kingdom into a settler’s colony” (Haidar 2011, 4). From 1565 to the 1680s, this region saw something of a golden age, as peace and prosperity reigned. As was the case with the Chinese textile analyzed above, artisans in the Coromandel Coast were aware of the high price of textiles traded with European merchants. Officials in the region began to see the sea as “both a source of revenue and of novelties, owning ships and investing in trade operations within the wide network that stretched the Red Sea to insular Southeast Asia” (Flores 2016, 21). Artisans, too, adapted their designs and catered to various cultural groups, from Europeans to Mughal or Deccani courts. They “prepared canopies with the appropriate mythological designs for their Hindu clients, prayer carpets for the Muslims, tent-lining cloths with cypress-motif or floral designs, which were held in high esteem by the Persian rulers, and finally yardage and hangings of chintz for the Western market” (Dallapiccola 2015, 14). According to Rajarshi Sengupta, “the Golconda coverlet embodies the essence of many gatherings, found most prominently in its portrayal of people from varied ethnicities and social backgrounds” (Sengupta 2017). While the commissioner or buyer of the piece is unknown, the artisans of the Coromandel Coast often produced works to sell in markets rather than directly to a particular buyer. However, the artisans were familiar with multicultural taste both at home and abroad.

The coverlet represents an architectural complex housing a royal figure with one female and two male attendants. The royal figure wears a turban, a jama (robe) with a floral pattern, and a sash tied around his waist. In the upper left-hand corner of the textile, a courier delivers a message. The other corners show groups socializing and drinking. On the right, an East Asian man appears “dressed in a conical hat and checkered waistcoat” (Sengupta 2017). He stares at the bearded, pale royal figure seen between the two groups on the left. According to the National Museum of India, the figures are from Armenia, the Mughal Kingdom, China, and Turkey. Additionally, there is a yogi seated on a deer and holding a pineapple in his left hand towards the middle left-hand side of the frame. The figure turns away from the main narrative, pointing to the importance of the pineapple. Pineapples arrived in Golconda from South America with Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century. According to Sengupta, “the association between this transnational fruit and solitary ascetic brings different worldviews into conversation.” This interaction shows the curiosity and engagement with new items discovered in the material world, potentially even the cognitive dissonance of attempting to place foreign objects in ideology. Thus, this textile ties into an early modern cosmopolitanism, not only bringing into conversation differing cultural groups, but also religiously emphasizing the initial human processes of categorization and rationalization, when confronted with unknown objects. The pineapple motif became particularly popular in Hyderabad during this time, appearing on the Qutb Shahi and Paigah tomb architecture (Sengupta 2017). Like Eleanora’s dress with its pomegranates, this coverlet focuses on the widespread symbolism of a particular fruit representative of a foreign region.

The artisans of the Coromandel Coast who created this piece were perhaps emphasizing the importance of cosmopolitanism and trade for the culture and future of the Deccan. The Deccan was a cultural melting pot, and initially the introduction of foreign trade routes had benefits for almost everyone involved. The relatively new Qutb Shahi Sultanates also realized that cultural diversity was important in legitimizing their empire. As noted by Navina Haidar in her book Sultans of the South: Arts of India’s Deccan Courts (Haidar 2011, 7):

It was not just the peace and prosperity that fostered the burst of distinctive artistic traditions in the principal courts of sixteenth and seventeenth century Deccan. Equally important was the cosmopolitan character of those courts, in turn a function of the Deccan’s cultural and ethnic diversity. This diversity is especially apparent when juxtaposed with the more homogenous culture of the imperial Mughals…

For the Qutb Shah Sultanates who wanted to maintain power, all support was welcome – regardless of whether or not it came from foreigners. Visual representations of that cosmopolitanism cemented the validity of the cultural melting pot, thereby helping to secure the continuity of the empire.

Mobile Propaganda

Figure 4. Hanging, 1 of 7 Pieces, ca. 1610-1620. Painted resist and mordants, dyed cotton, 108 1/4 x 37 3/4 in. (275 x 95.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1913-1914, Museum Collection Fund, 14.719.2.

Figure 5. Hanging, 1 of 7 Pieces, 1610-1640. Cotton, drawn and painted resist and mordants, dyed, Other: 109 1/4 x 38 1/4 in. (277.5 x 97.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1913-1914, Museum Collection Fund, 14.719.7.

The final textile to be discussed is the Brooklyn Museum’s “Hanging 1-7 Pieces” (Accession 14.719.1-7). This kalamkari, a type of ink painting on textiles popularized in the Coromandel Coast of India, is one of the more challenging pieces to draw conclusions from, due to the lack of information about its place of origin, commissioners, and the limited published research done on this hanging. A local dealer by the name of Imre Schwaiger sold the piece to Stewart Culin of the Brooklyn Museum in 1914. Imre Schwaiger promised that the textile had royal ties to the Rajput Maharajas and their families at the Amber Palace in Jaipur. According to Rahul Jain in his book, Textiles & Garments at the Jaipur Court, the kalamkari is “connected to the Amber farrashkhana via their inventory inscriptions or their art market provenance” (Jain 39). However, the Mughal emperors during the era the kalamkari could perhaps have been commissioned – Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (1628-1658) – married Rajput princesses, which leaves the original cultural identity of this piece open to interpretation. Here, I posit that the hanging was likely commissioned by the Mughals by master dyers in Masulipatnam.

The piece contains a visual ‘ethnographic account’ of seven different cultural groups, one per panel, each of which had either originated in or settled within pre-modern India. The groups are identified by dress and objects of trade: (1) Persians, perhaps Deccani Sultans (2) Europeans, perhaps Portuguese (3) Southeast Asian, perhaps Thai or Siamese (4) rural communities in the midsection of India, perhaps the Adivasi (5) the Indonesian islanders, perhaps Malay or Javanese (6) the so-called “locals” (Cummins 2019), most similar in aesthetic to the Vijayanagara Hindus, and lastly, (7) either East African (Cummins 2019), or Persian/Turkoman figures with European influence in women’s garments (Gwatkin 1982, 93). The different cultural groups do not interact in the textile, but rather remain separate on their own panels, suggesting an analogy between this textile and the lived experience in pre-modern India. The individual hangings were originally sewn together, but for ease of transport the Brooklyn Museum separated the panels.

In the second panel of the piece, shown in the left-hand side of the photographic detail above, a European figure looks to be holding a small rock. Further analysis by Dr. Joan Cummins of the Brooklyn Museum suggests that the figure is meant to be depicted holding a Golconda diamond. Susan Stronge, in a talk at the Nauras exhibit in New Delhi in 2015, quoted explorer Henry Howard’s (1677) statement that “diamonds from the Deccan [were] sufficient to furnish the world.” The Golconda diamond mines were a crucial stronghold for the Qutb Shahi sultans previously discussed. Further, the Qutb Shahi sultans supplied the Mughal courts with diamonds. Practically, the Mughal empire would have an inclination to appeal to the diverse crowd of the Deccan in order to gain access to the ports. Thus, a campaign of cosmopolitanism could perhaps have benefited the Mughal empire during the time of this piece’s commission. As stated by Navina Haidar (quoted above),  the Mughal empire was rather homogenous in comparison with the Qutb Shahi sultans. In order to gain traction in a campaign of imperialism, the Mughal emperors had to find a way to compete with the cultural melting pot. The kalamkari hangings would prove useful in this task.

The hangings are unlikely to have been intended for interior decor, due to the grand size, style, and frame of the kalamkari. The most obvious use of the piece would have been as tent hangings, or qanats, for hunting parties, short journeys, royal tours or military expeditions. The Mughals emphasized the great mobility of their royal courts, and were often interested in inter-cultural relations (Sinopoli 1994, 296). For example, out of the 22 years Jahangir ruled the Mughal empire, he was absent for a total of 14 years. Mughal emperors generally spent around 40% of their time in camps or on tours lasting for more than a year (Sinopoli 1994, 296). The campaigns were most likely fueled by imperial desires: “rather than a distant or seldom-seen figure ensconced in a protected capital, the Mughal emperor and his royal household could be seen and venerated (or feared) by large segments of the population as his camp traveled through imperial territories” (Sinopoli 1994, 298). Thus, the qanats likely were an appeal to imperial territories in order to be accepted by, and ultimately dominate, surrounding regions.

Conclusion

Cosmopolitanism is the normative “goal” a “substantive utopian ideal of a polis or polity constructed on a world scale” (Pearson 2017, 17), with the aim of living in peace and reconciling differences. However, the altruistic desire for cosmopolitanism can always be manipulated. The visualization of cosmopolitanism in the textiles analyzed in this paper can be traced back to the desire for political power, the elite display of multiculturalism in conspicuous consumption, the veneration of global trade, and the preservation of empire-building. Cosmopolitanism “can have an insurgent quality, and capacity to disrupt elitism, if not unseat it” (Pearson 2017, 17). However, when utilized by the political elite of any era, it can become weaponized. As I have shown here, the entire premise of cosmopolitanism was frequently subverted by rulers and elite across the globe during the early modern era.

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