The Age of Discovery ushered in an era of European overseas exploration, in the name of expanding empire, but also furthering knowledge—a key tenet of the forthcoming Enlightenment. During the expeditions promoted by both of these periods, European explorers encountered unfamiliar lands as well as their exotic inhabitants. Motivated by European hegemonic desires, voyagers harnessed the empirical spirit and technologies of the Enlightenment to forcefully exploit and invade indigenous civilizations. In this essay, I will discuss how contemporary artists employed specific posing, body language, and style of dress in their female subjects to rationalize imperialism and conceal its adverse effects. In evaluating not only the information these works convey but also the contextual background they hide, I will explore the justification for imperialism these pieces impart upon their European audiences. By discussing the themes above in works of art born from imperialistic expeditions, I hope to reveal the artists’ underlying political motivations—to fetishize and misrepresent the exotic, and to disguise and erase the damage inevitably caused.
I will begin by examining Johannes Stradanus’ 1580 work America, published in a print series titled Nova Reperta (New Discoveries). Nova Reperta celebrated Renaissance developments and deemed the conquest of America as another exalted Renaissance discovery, comparable to the invention of eyeglasses or the printing press. Depicting the first encounter of a European—Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci—with the New World, Stradanus personifies America as a naked native woman. America bears the subtitle “American Americus pretext, Semel vocavit inde sempre excite” – “Americus uncovers America; he called her once and thenceforth she was always awake”. In the distant background beyond the abundant trees and exotic animals, Native Americans roast a human haunch with another limb resting nearby. Behind Vespucci is a powerful fleet of ships, and in his hands are an astrolabe and a banner embellished with a cross. If Vespucci is surrounded by representations of technological advancement, America is encompassed by symbols of natural crudeness: rife wildlife and a wooden club resting against a tree. While Vespucci is dressed in classic Renaissance fashion, America is embellished with accessories that do little to preserve her modesty: a feeble vine of leaves covering her loins, a decorative cuff hugging her leg, and a feathered headpiece gracing her head. America’s exposed body leaves little to the imagination—her entire figure fully displayed for Vespucci’s ‘colonial gaze’, allowing him to assess and utilize her potential for European progress.
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Stradanus splits America into halves: one European and one American, emphasizing the contrast between the two civilizations. Compositionally, although Vespucci and America are centered in the foreground, Vespucci and the items he holds take up more physical space and stand taller than the sitting America—a nod to the power dynamic in Vespucci’s favor. Despite the comparatively smaller scene of cannibalism taking place in the backdrop, American barbarism is effectively emphasized. Directly parallel to America’s outstretched arm, a hammock line draws a literal connection between America and Vespucci. A disregarded speared haunch rests above this line, and following the same angle of America’s extended arm, Native Americans roast the impaled haunch above a fire—the ultimate ‘mark of unregenerate savagery’. Furthermore, America’s subtitle implies that America’s history is one of ‘sleep and mere oblivion’, only relevant once awakened by European intervention. Stradanus uses these devices to suggest the backwardness of America by objectifying its people as savages in need of European influence.
In deliberately framing the first encounter between Europe and the New World as an erotic meeting between an uncultured woman and her sophisticated conqueror, Stradanus romanticizes imperialism. America’s nudity can then be viewed as a ‘symbol of her sexual naiveté’ in need of direction from more experienced, educated Europeans. As Marilyn Yalom concludes, America represents ‘virgin territory awaiting the penetration of a robust male’. America’s facial expression, one of awe or curiosity, and her beckoning arm ‘ambiguously suspended between greeting and invitation’ indicate that America is both interested and in need of cultural enlightening. Whether she is ‘rising to embrace [Vespucci]’ or ‘reclining and inviting him to join her in the hammock,’ America’s body language intentionally welcomes European conquest. Additionally, America and the other natives are represented with hunched backs, and postures similar to those of the surrounding animals, while Vespucci is uprightly postured, a stance that Newbold claims is ‘one mark of ability to exercise power’. These details all reinforce the sexualization and subordination of America to Vespucci to condone imperialism. Just as female bodies were subordinate to male desires, the New World was to be subjugated by European conquest.
By sexualizing and gendering imperial conquest, Stradanus compares the settlement of America to the control of female bodies by European men—affirming the actions as acceptable and necessary. Furthermore, by replacing Christopher Columbus, the first pioneer of America, with Amerigo Vespucci, Stradanus constructs the fantasy that Vespucci was the true discoverer of the New World—a Florentine invention worthy of ‘patriotic revel’ to amplify Florence’s role in the discovery of the New World. , The subtitle accompanying America also rationalizes European conquest of America— arguing that without European imperialism, America would still be ‘asleep’ or undeveloped. Given the wide distribution of America and Nova Reperta due to new printing technology, Stradanus held significant influence in educating and homogenizing public opinion. Thus, America demonstrates Stradanus’ political motivations: to compel his audience to sympathize with imperialistic aspirations and to view Florence in a glorified light.
I will now discuss how John Webber’s 1785 oil painting Poedua, daughter of Oree, chief of Ulaietea, one of the Society islands attempts to also revise history and validate imperialism. Poedua was one of the European audiences’ first exposures to Pacific women and features the aforementioned Pacific native wearing a placid expression. Encompassed by lush greenery, warm neutral tones, and a sultry sky, Poedua’s breasts are exposed, emphasizing the painting’s sensual ambiance. Donning a white cloth around her waist and wrapping an arm around her midsection, Poedua calls to mind the classical Medici Venus highlighting the period’s ‘proclivity for Greek classics’. Given that Venus is the goddess of love and beauty, Poedua is associated as an object of desire. But Poedua is not to be mistaken for a European woman: the voluminous curls in her hair, jasmine blossom flowers behind her ears, fly whisk in her right hand, and dainty tattoos dotting her arms remind audiences that she is still very much a foreigner with traditions inferior to those of the West.
Like the New World in Stradanus’ America, the Pacific islands are personified as a sexualized woman—an object to be desired and ‘rendered subservient’—in Webber’s Poedua. Moreover, like Stradanus and America, Webber utilizes Poedua as a political device to condone imperial conquest and ‘divert attention away from colonial violence.’ As the onboard artist for Captain James Cook, Webber’s role was to document experiences from the voyage to better illustrate new findings and boost popular opinion of the expeditions. During his time on board, however, two crew members deserted. To coerce the Pacific people to help find the members, Cook took Poedua hostage. So while Webber characterizes a comfortable graceful Poedua, the verdant backdrop is a ‘ruse’; Poedua is not on her native soil but rather on a ship held captive. Furthermore, Webber’s Poedua implies a state of consensual peaceful relations with the Pacific people, but Poedua’s captivity caused anguish and distress among her people. According to crew member Captain Clerke:
“The News of [Poedua’s] Confinement, of course, was blazed instantaneously throughout the Isle; old Orea was half mad, and within an hour we had a most numerous Congregation of Women under the Stern, cutting their heads with Sharks Teeth and lamenting the Fate of the Prisoners”.
Webber’s rendering of Poedua omits this event entirely, showing his audiences a distorted perspective of Cook’s Pacific voyage. Rather than detail the actual circumstances, Webber utilizes Poedua’s exposed body as a means of beautiful distraction and diversion from the sinister undertones of imperialism.
Webber’s decision to suppress this event to better portray the voyage is what Tamara describes as ‘colonial spin doctoring’¬– an attempt to veil the violence caused by Western invasions by ‘creating images of a pacific Pacific through the visual arts’. Webber utilizes Poedua’s sexualized body “to fit a colonial agenda’ and mask the violence and conflict underlying imperialistic efforts. By conforming Poedua to classical European beauty ideals as a means to appease European viewers, Webber effectively disregards the Pacific culture, history, and perspective during his encounter with Ulaitea. In doing so, Webber reduces Poedua to a political tool, a body to distract rather than an individual to respect. Given that Poedua offered many Europeans their first look into the Pacific islands, Webber held significant power in shaping European perception of overseas voyages. It was only in his best interest to portray these expeditions innocuously and immaculately so explorations could continue to receive sponsorship and public support.
Both these works, through artistic choice of dress, intentional facial expressions, and purposeful positioning of their subjects, endorse imperialism and deliberately overlook its associated destruction. Highlighting female subjects, the artist's gender lands of conquest into women to justify their eventual conquest by European men. By sexualizing foreign lands as women in various states of undress, Webber and Stradanus insinuate the need for male authority to uplift the indecent, vulnerable indigenous populations to advancement and sophistication. Intentional details—America’s meager loin coverings and Poedua’s tattoos—remind audiences that despite their beauty, these women are alien, uncivilized, and savage. Both works feature female subjects with compliant facial expressions and luring body positions, implying awareness, invitation, and acceptance of their eventual fates—the invasion of their lands. Subsequently, both works uphold the argument that imperialism allows both European empires and non-Western populations to benefit from conquest in a mutualistic relationship.
Besides America featuring a landscape presenting multiple Native Americans and Poedua consisting of a portrait solely depicting a single Pacific woman, the works also differ in the information they mask and the events they portray. Created almost two centuries apart, America and Poedua appeal to different societal values corresponding to the cultural movements of the time: the Age of Discovery and the Enlightenment, respectively. Voyages during the Age of Discovery intended to broaden empire power, while expeditions of the Enlightenment endeavored to widen scientific knowledge. Due to different contemporary values, America underscores the savagery of Americans to justify imperial expansion and Western influence, while Poedua depicts the Pacific in a reverential manner that exalts the discovery of another exotic land and progress toward globalization. Furthermore, Stradanus accentuates Florence’s accomplishments to honor the powerful Florentine Alamanni family, while Webber seeks to diminish the adverse effects of expeditions to retain public support. Consequently, although Stradanus depicts America critically and Webber represents the Pacific respectfully, both endorse the political movements that were responsible for these encounters with people of different cultures.
Conclusion:
Though created centuries apart and in very different political climates, Johannes Stradanus’ America and John Webber’s Poedua, daughter of Oree, chief of Ulaitea, one of the Society islands both serve to support and sustain imperialistic expeditions of the time through careful use of artistic devices. While Stradanus creates an image that modifies an original event, Webber paints a portrait that masks one entirely. By sexualizing lands of imperial interest as eroticized, compliant women, both artists infer the occurrence of willing consent to Western conquest. The female bodies in both works, then, become political tools to perpetuate exploitative explorations. Whether to paint imperialism in a favorable light or to distract from the harm inflicted upon Indigenous populations, Stradanus and Webber use their works of art to express motivations that are not only aesthetic but also political.
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