European Art and Diplomacy in the Global Early Modern Period

The history of diplomacy, which may be traced back to Herodotus and Thucydides, was systematized by Ranke in the nineteenth century. In more recent decades, this branch of historical study has been shaped by a shift toward the cultural facets of diplomacy, and since the pioneering historiographical work of Norbert Elias in the 1940s, increasing attention has been paid to its material, artistic, and performative dimensions. However, to a great extent, it continues to be indebted to Mattingly’s classic (1955) study, which established the idea that the origin of modern diplomacy may be traced back to early modern Italy and the emergence of Humanism and quattrocento art. This foundational alliance is understood to have been responsible for the modernization of diplomacy. Subsequently, permanent embassies went on to be established, and the role of the ambassador was increasingly governed by a range of conventions and regulations. Such theses are not exempt from Eurocentrism and a degree of teleologism: diplomacy inevitably developed into what it would be in the nineteenth century. The trend indebted to Mattingly was based on two views that have since been called into question: diplomacy is the antithesis of political conflict, and it is an art that flourished solely in times of peace. On the international stage of the early modern period, a range of objects were exchanged, often in a considerable volume, during times of conflict. Recent studies have questioned the notion of the primacy of European and Italian diplomacy by revealing how, long before European diplomacy came to play a significant role, sophisticated networks of trade and political alliances extended across China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Mughal Empire, Safavid Persia, and the Ottoman Empire. Across these geopolitical regions, there were systems of diplomatic negotiation that were just as regularized and codified as those in Europe. The transformation of diplomatic studies owes a great deal to cross-cultural studies, and the understanding that between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, emissaries operated on both a local and a global scale. In addition, literary studies have made a significant contribution, and literary texts have been analyzed as a mode of constructing new diplomatic models during the early modern period. Another area of research that has proved itself to be especially relevant for diplomatic history is the exchange of gifts. Together, all these lines of inquiry have contributed to a renewed focus on the relationship of art and diplomacy.