Prof. Dr. Joachim Rees

The subproject continues the analysis of forms of visualization of the portus motif in paintings and prints whose production and distribution was substantially fostered by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC; Dutch East India Company). In the investigation of (visual) publicity strategies, the cooperation, firstly, between diverse groups of actors in the course of working collectively on the VOC’s ‘corporate image’, and secondly the incorporation of images whose provenances are geographically widely scattered, open up multiple possibilities of relating models proposed by the actor-network theory to a transculturally broad historical context.

This aspect becomes clear above all in the lavishly illustrated publications documenting the ‘embassies’ by VOC envoys to China and Japan, whose texts were supplied by academics such as Dutch theologian and historian Arnold van den Berghe (Montanus; 1625‒1683) and were tailored to the world view of the European respublica litteraria. The illustrations accompanying these publications were considered indispensable to the success of the latter’s reception and testify to the use of visual material from diverse visual cultures, insofar as this was compatible with the medial dispositif of European engraving.