NEW
WORLDS, OLD PARADISES:
THE INFLUENCE OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA ON THE REPRESENTATION OF PARADISE
-Esther van Gelder (UM)
My research on the representation of paradise stems from amazement about that strong image of a tropical island, which nowadays is called the earthly paradise. By looking behind the surface of this image, it is possible to discern different paradoxes, which raise many questions, like: how can the earthly paradise be in reach, or even be multiple? How is it possible that the business of mass-tourism conforms to the idea of an unspoiled, quiet, maybe uninhabited paradise? Our modern tropical paradise, I argue, must be called a myth in the way Ronald Barthes (Mythologies, 1957) describes it: a range of complex and historical forms and meanings are hidden behind a strongly simplified concept that is presented to us –for example in advertisements- like a natural sign, a fact. This ‘secret history’ of the modern paradisiacal myth, the challenge to write it down, is the subject of my thesis-research.
I have turned my view to the ‘epoch of great discoveries’; to the 16th and 17th century in which world travels were made, new lands were discovered and old beliefs were challenged. This epoch, I argue, has to be the breeding ground for radical changes in the concept and the visual representation of the earthly paradise. The traditional, medieval idea of the Christian paradise used to be an unspoiled place, abundant of natural riches, but was also inextricably bound up with the Fall and therefore impossible to reach in place and in (human life) time. What could have been the impact of the discovery of a complete new world, of a continent that seemed to correspond with the idea of a formerly inaccessible land of abundance, inhabited by naked and innocent people? Columbus did make the comparison in his travel report of his third voyage to America (Flint, The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus, 1992)! But I don’t want to make simple statements. I agree with historians like Elliot (The Old World and the New, 1970) and Grafton (New Worlds, Ancient Texts, 1992) who argue that the influence of the discovery of America on European beliefs is an extremely slow, complex and ambiguous one. In my thesis therefore, I have not tried to measure the impact of the New World on representations of the earthly paradise, but I decided to follow a Dutch 17th century landscape painter, Frans Post, on his voyage to the Dutch colony in Brazil.
In this case study I made an attempt to carefully describe and analyze the reception of America as an earthly paradise in the pictures of Frans Post. The leading question in this analysis was: pictures Post the New World as a paradise, or the paradise as the New World? Both the representations of paradise - at that time Christian, as well as Antique and Celtic assumptions about an ideal place constituted the concept – and the New World – the visual language for this new land must be seen in the context of travel reports an the exotic landscape painting - are extremely complex issues and must be seen in their religious, artistic and political context. Knowledge of the developments of that time in the Christian religion – the Reformation -, the humanistic range of thought, landscape painting and the political and economic tensions in Europe, made it possible to describe the pictures of Frans Post in a meaningful way.
Although Post didn’t represent paradise as a tropical island, it became clear that he combined traditional aspects of the Christian paradise like natural abundances, tranquility and so on, with surprisingly modern assumptions about the multiplicity, accessibility and exploitation of paradise. In the pictures of Frans Post new forms and meanings of the earthly paradise were produced. I even argue that they are an outstanding example for the origin of a visual language in which the connection between traveling and paradise is deepened and strengthened.