Material Mediators: Johan Maurits, Textiles, and the Art of Diplomatic Exchange

Abstract

Although textiles were key facilitators in global diplomacy in the early modern period, there has been little scholarly consideration of the dynamic role they played in shaping diplomatic relationships during a time when textiles of all types from both east and west were circulating actively as wholesale commodities across world markets. This case study addresses this lacuna by examining the role that textiles, including linens, silks, and tapestries, played in mediating the inter- and intra-cultural diplomatic negotiations of Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), the governor-general of Dutch Brazil from 1637 to 1644. As I argue, the production and dissemination of objects such as linens and especially the Old Indies tapestry series, based on designs made under Johan Maurits’s patronage, demonstrate how textiles, in their many forms and formats, were uniquely suited to negotiate the dynamic shifts that characterized cross-cultural diplomacy in the early modern period.