Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World July 15, 2007

This exhibition brings together approximately 300 extraordinary objects reflecting the unprecedented cross-cultural dialogue that followed the establishment of Portugal's world trading network in the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal was the first European nation to build an extensive commercial empire, which soon reached to Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan and Brazil. Portuguese contact with these regions, which had been virtually unknown to Europeans, led to the creation of highly original works of art, some intended for export and others for domestic consumption in their countries of origin. Initially displayed in princely "cabinets of wonder"- the ancestors of the modern museum-and other royal and aristocratic collections and now scattered in museums throughout the world, the paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, maps, early books and other objects assembled here provide a rich image of a "new world" during its formation.