Portuguese ships and caravels

This Masters Dissertation seeks to examine a fifteenth century model of a carrack, known as the Mataró model, which now resides in the Maritime Museum of Rotterdam.  The purpose of this examination is to determine how reliable, and to what extent, this unique artefact is in revealing the development of the European ship of exploration throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.  To achieve these aims, this study will entail a comparative analysis of the model with the primary and secondary evidence currently available.  The examination will trace the origins and function of the model, and include the findings of numerous studies, particularly those concerning the model’s stability and sailing qualities, made upon it to date.  These findings, and an overview of European ships and shipbuilding in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century, will then be compared with the iconographic, documentary, and archaeological evidence relating to this period of maritime history.  The significance of this examination for the discipline of maritime archaeology lies in its approach.  For the first time, the model will be directly compared with the archaeological evidence, consisting of a sample of five shipwrecks, selected on the basis of their age, and associated features.

The wreck site of the Portuguese ship Espadarte (1558) was discovered on the 30th of May 2001. The assessment of the site revealed that there was a number of Chinese porcelain artefacts within the archaeological context and the decision was made to excavate it. After the removal of approximately 80 tons of ballast; the collection of porcelain items (from the Ming Dynasty, all Jingdezhen ware) reached almost 2,000 pieces that were either intact or nearly intact.

Namban screens, a well-known Japanese art form, were painted by skillful Japanese artists from the late 16th century to the 17th centuries.  Approximately 90 of these screens have been handed down up to the present.  Not only they show some important historical scenes of European commercial activities in the Far East for the first time, but they also depict representational pictures of Portuguese ships during the Age of Discovery.  Although the ships’ images on the screens are roughly acceptable, the details are often strangely anachronistic.  The same images could be found in some Western maps in the 16th century.  Judging from the similarity, perhaps, Japanese painters, who had never seen actual ships themselves in ports, did manage to copy the images from ones on those maps, which were brought to Japan by the well known Tensho embassy.  This was the first Japanese embassy that was sent to Europe; the diplomats left Japan in 1582 and arrived at Portugal in 1584. They met with Pope Gregory XIII and his successor, Pope Sixtus V, in Rome, and then returned back to their homeland in 1590.  In the following year the embassy members succeeded in seeing Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who was the leading political ruler in Japan at that time.  They gave him some souvenirs from Europe, including the maps.  It seems that some official court painters had a chance to see those gifts, from where Japanese artists could have obtained an idea of the ships’ images that appear in the Namban Screens.

Namban screens, a well-known Japanese art form, were painted by skillful Japanese artists from the late 16th century to the 17th centuries. Approximately 90 of these screens have been handed down up to the present. Not only they show some important historical scenes of European commercial activities in the Far East for the first time, but they also depict representational pictures of Portuguese ships during the Age of Discovery. Although the ships’ images on the screens are roughly acceptable, the details are often strangely anachronistic. The same images could be found in some Western maps in the 16th century. Judging from the similarity, perhaps, Japanese painters, who had never seen actual ships themselves in ports, did manage to copy the images from ones on those maps, which were brought to Japan by the wellknownTensho embassy. This was the first Japanese embassy that was sent to Europe; the diplomats left Japan in 1582 and arrived at Portugal in 1584. They met with Pope Gregory XIII and his successor, Pope Sixtus V, in Rome, and then returned back to their homeland in 1590. In the following year the embassy members succeeded in seeing HideyoshiToyotomi, who was the leading political ruler in Japan at that time. They gave him some souvenirs from Europe, including the maps. It seems that some official court painters had a chance to see those gifts, from where Japanese artists could have obtained an idea of the ships’ images that appear in the Namban screens.

In 1543, Portuguese sailors first reached Japan. They introduced the fire-weapon ‘arquebus’ (ancestor of rifles) to the Samurai world.
After this encounter, many Portuguese merchants and missionaries traveled to Japan and started the Far Most Eastern Trade with Japan.
Many Japanese artists in the 16th and 17th centuries depicted Europeans on screens, and those soon became popular entertainment. Those pieces are called ‘Namban Screens’.
Today, more than 90 of them survive in the world.