Exhibition

Program

Learning and Education

Catalog

Press

360° Panoramas

Visitor Information

Imprint

German Version

Portuguese Version

 

 

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Prologue | Portugal in the Middle Ages | Conditions at the Start | Voyages of Discovery

Cartography and Nautics | New Worlds – Old Empires | Portugal Overseas | Art and Curiosity Cabinets

Portugal in the 16th Century | International Conflicts | Foreign Images

 

 

11. Foreign Images

Portuguese expansion brought with it a new epoch that was to broaden the view and bring lasting change to the image of the world as perceived both by the “discoverers” and the “discovered”. The foreign cultures inspired Europeans and indigenous peoples to use these new impressions in their art. Foreign behaviour and characteristic attributes even today give an impression of what non-European observers must have thought when the “outsiders” arrived.

 

In Europe old traditional notions of inhabitants beyond the seas fused with actual experiences. The intensive preoccupation with the “New Worlds”  gradually led to a new image of other peoples abroad. There were those saw this exotic world as being on a par with Europeans, both others indulged their prejudices by forming new stereotypes which were to persevere over the centuries. Even in the 21st century we have never quite lost this mixture of arrogance, experience and reflection.