Borders Project-Post #2

As a recap of the last blog post, the painting I chose as a starting point for this project is the Portrait of the Duchess of Portsmouth (1682) by Pierre Mignard. The area of focus I chose to pursue for the remaining parts of this project is the red coral the little girl is holding. Specifically, I researched how the coral connects Africa and Europe through trade, and how this item has been used in art before this paining. This entry will be comprised of the information gathered concerning the origins of red coral trade between countries from Europe and West Africa, and the origins and meanings behind the use of red coral in European art.

Coral was a very prized commodity among many other goods traded by Europeans with African countries in exchange for slaves and raw goods. A review of the goods traded by European countries can be found in Alpern’s What Africans Got for Their Slaves: A Master List of European Trade Goods. The origin of the trade of red coral between Europe and Africa is between the Portuguese and West African countries (Alpern, 20; Johnson, 76). It has been suggested that prior to the 16^th century, coral might have been imported through the Sahara (Ogundiran, 433; Fage, 347). In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the coral was collected off the coasts of Algeria, Tunisia, Liguria, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Calabria, Provenance, and Tuscany, leading to the overharvesting of the Algerian and Tunisian coastlines by the 18^th century (Kelley, 119). Aside from West African countries, red coral was also traded with India for use in funerary practices (Kelley, 123). A well-documented use of the red coral in West Africa can be seen with the popularity and exclusivity of the material as beads for the headdress of the oba in Benin, which still occurs today (Alpern, 20; Fage, 345).

One confusing aspect that arises when studying the trade of coral is the language used in trade and travel logs. During the time from the 16^th to 18^th centuries, European traders would use the term “coral” to mean bead, regardless of the actual material (Fage, 344). Also, when editing and printing the trade records from these centuries, an equally confusing instance occurs with respect to a variant spelling of akori, cori, that could have been mistakenly translated to coral when it is not clear that the good was actually coral (Fage, 344; Alpern, 20). Also, in the 16^th century, European traders introduced counterfeit coral beads (made of red glass) into the market, which did become popular alongside authentic red coral beads (Alpern, 20). In the 18^th century, the French became more involved in the trade of coral, with the center of its trade coming from Marseille, and their string of coral beads sold in cotton-lined cases were highly desirable (Alpern, 20). Bringing the trade of red coral back to Mignard’s painting highlights a realization that the little girl is holding a good that was exported from Europe to Africa in exchange for slaves—she is holding the very type of thing that European traders used to buy her life.

The use of coral in art shows a visual representation of a historically important material. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the first coral was created when Perseus rescued Andromeda and laid Medusa’s head on fresh seaweed, her gaze turning it to stone which the sea nymphs spread throughout the ocean (Kelley, 123). Thus, the power of coral came from female sources—Medusa, the nymphs, and Andromeda’s virginity—and had monstrous origins because of its connection to Medusa (Kelley, 124). According to Pliny, people from India held the belief that coral charms bore protection from dangers, particularly when an infant wore a coral branch on a necklace (Callisen, 454). In Italian art, the use of a coral branch is a reminder of Christ’s passion (Kelley, 123). In example, Andrea Mantegna’s Madonna della Vittoria (1495) shows a coral branch above the Virgin’s throne. The Virgin and Child (c. 1360s) by Barnaba da Modena shows the infant Christ wearing a coral branch on a necklace. The little girl in Mignard’s painting is holding a coral branch, not coral beads. This may be a reference to the art tradition and act as a form of protection, especially because she is a young child bearing the coral in its branch form.

Focusing on the red coral in the Mignard painting led to researching the trade history surrounding this commodity between Europe and Africa. Besides trade, the red coral in its branched form has a precedent and meaning in the history of art. Thus, not only does Mignard’s painting connect Europe and Africa through trade, it also follows a tradition regarding the use of red coral in art. The next step for this project is to focus on the use of red coral in the African countries in which they were popular, focusing on Benin.

References

       Alpern, Stanley B. “What Africans Got for Their Slaves: A Master List of European Trade Goods.” History in Africa 22.5 (1995): 5-43. Print.

      

       Callisen, S.A. “The Evil Eye in Italian Art.” The Art Bulletin 19.3 (1937): 450-462. Print.

      

       Fage, J. D. “Some Remarks on Beads and Trade in Lower Guinea in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” The Journal of African History 3.2 (2015): 343–347. Print.

      

       Johnson, Ragnar. “Accumulation and Collecting: An Anthropological Perspective.” Art History 9.1 (1986): 73–84. Print.

      

       Kelley, Shannon. “The King’s Coral Body: A Nature History of Coral and the Post-Tragic Ecology of the Tempest.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 14.1 (2014): 115-142. Print.

      

       Ogundiran, Akinwumi. “Of Small Things Remembered: Beads, Cowries, and Cultural Translations of the Atlantic Experience in Yorubaland.”  The International Journal of African Historical Studies 35.2/3 (2002): 427-457. Print.