Informação recebida da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian relativa à exposição 360º Ciência Descoberta

“Os Paquidermes do Rei D. Manuel I. Elefantes E Outra Exótica na Menagerie da Corte Portuguesa

13 março | Annemarie Jordan, Centro de História de Além-Mar, Lisboa

Os encontros com novos mundos na Ásia, África e nas Américas proporcionaram à Corte portuguesa uma oportunidade única para obter animais selvagens desconhecidos. O comércio e as relações comerciais trouxeram essas novidades para a Europa, abrindo mercados globais que os colecionadores reais portugueses exploraram com o apoio de comerciantes e agentes. Quanto mais exótico fosse o animal mais era valorizado. Os animais domésticos exóticos davam cor à vida quotidiana, às festas e entretenimentos, desempenhando um papel essencial na criação de coleções reais ao longo do século dezasseis. As coleções de animais ferozes em jaulas tornaram-se no prolongamento ao ar-livre das Kunstkammer (Gabinetes de Curiosidades) e o colecionar animais europeus, africanos e asiáticos refletia, de forma microcósmica, as coleções de raridades no interior, exibidos em jardins sumptuosos, também eles plantados com árvores e flores ornamentais importadas. Os colecionadores reais na Renascença dedicavam-se a uma cultura de coleções de animais ferozes em jaulas e de jardins, de acordo com a qual animais e plantas, símbolos do poder e prestígio de um proprietário, eram reunidos e plantados para deslumbrar e assombrar.

ANNEMARIE JORDAN GSCHWEND

A Research Scholar with the Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM) in Lisbon and Switzerland since 2010, she obtained her Ph.D in 1994 from Brown University, writing a dissertation on the court, household and collection of Catherine of Austria, queen of Portugal (1507-1578). Her areas of specialization include patronage, collecting, menageries and Kunstkammmers at the Renaissance courts in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. In recent years, this research has focused on the court culture, patronage and collections of Habsburg women: in particular the sisters, wives and aunts of the rulers: Philip II of Spain, and the Emperors Charles V and Maximilian II. A further specialization of hers focuses on the cultural and artistic transfer between Africa, Asia, Brazil and the Renaissance Habsburg courts.

She is author of numerous publications (articles, exhibition catalogue essays and contributions in books), including her own books: Retrato de Corte em Portugal. O legado de António Moro (1552-1572), (Lisbon, 1994), The Story of Süleyman. Celebrity Elephants and other Exotica in Renaissance Portugal (Zurich, 2012), and a recent biography on the Portuguese queen, Catherine of Austria: Catarina de Áustria. A rainha colecionadora, (Lisbon, 2012). She wrote several entries on Portuguese royal patrons and patronage for the Macmillan Dictionary of Art (London, 1996), and contributed two lengthy essays on the queens Leonor and Catherine of Austria for the Getty Foundation project: The Emperor Charles V and the Inventories of the Imperial Family, directed by Fernando Checa Cremades, published in 3 volumes (Madrid, 2010).

Dr Jordan was recently decorated by the Portuguese government with the Order of Henry the Navigator for guest curating the international exhibition:  Ivories of Ceylon. Luxury Goods of the Renaissance, which venued in 2011 at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich. This was the first exhibit ever on Portugal during the Age of Discovery to be shown in Switzerland.

Since 2008, she has been Project Director and Coordinator of a 5 year research project funded by the J. Paul Getty Foundation in Los Angeles on the life and career of the Austrian Imperial Ambassador in Spain, Hans Khevenhüller. The publication of Statesman, Art Agent and Connoisseur: Hans Khevenhüller, Imperial Ambassador at the Court of Philip II of Spain is expected in 2013-2014.”