Produced near the turn of the sixteenth century, this blue-and-white ewer (wine-server) provides a good example of adaptation practices. The porcelain bottle was manufactured in China, probably for export to the Middle East. However, it soon made its way to England, where it was given silver mounts, including a handle, a lid, a foot, and a bird-headed spout, and was thereby transformed into a European-style wine-server. It thus serves as a particularly good example of cross-cultural conversion in function as well as appearance.

In the Renaissance and earlier, travel and the exchange of gifts were important aspects of diplomacy. Here, the Magi (wise men or kings) have traveled great distances to Nazareth to bring presents to the infant Christ. To emphasize that the Magi have journeyed from afar, artists frequently depicted many exotic animals, figures, and objects in representations of their procession. Here, some of the figures wear exotic turbans and hats, and there is a group of black men, perhaps the retinue of the black king Balthazar, on the right. Behind them, a giraffe stands under an arch. Not long before this work was executed, the Sultan of Egypt had sent a giraffe as a gift to the leader and patron of the arts, Lorenzo de’ Medici; the animal became a favorite mascot of the Florentine people.

A Chicagoan by birth, Charles Dyer traveled extensively throughout his lifetime, first as a diplomat posted to Beirut, and later as an artist living in Munich. The diverse array of objects pictured in this interior scene—including a vivid Persian rug, a lute, and a Chinese blue-and-white jar—reflect the artist’s own worldliness, yet through his reference to the past, Dyer positioned these items within a larger cultural perspective. The meticulous, highly illusionistic style and choice of subject matter recalls seventeenth-century Dutch still life painting, while the objects—some of which he may have collected during his travels—suggest the historical importance of European trade with the East and the Middle East during that time.

Belief in the healing and protective powers of written prayers and numerological patterns, called “magic squares,” is widespread in the Muslim world. Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism, is the dominant sect in Senegal, where Islam took root in the twelfth century. Learned Sufic practitioners used the art of copying from religious texts to create spiritually charged talismans (devices with supernatural power) for clients seeking divine intervention. This textile is covered with verses from the Quran and checkerboard patterns that are evocative of magic squares. The attached amulets of leather, fur, and cloth encase folded squares of paper also covered in Quranic verses. Wrapped around a client’s body, the cloth would enfold the individual in the healing power of the holy Word.

Even when depicting intimate domestic scenes, Dutch artists often included allusions to their country’s mercantile prowess. Here, the map in the background—“Germania Inferior” by the eminent cartographer Claes Janszoon Visscher—is meant to suggest the Dutch command of the seas and the Netherlands’ extensive international trade. In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch founded the first great trading companies, which brought back to Europe from Asia a wide assortment of goods, including silks, spices, and porcelains. The violin held by the woman and the viola da gamba on the table were European inventions, but the bent-neck lute strummed by the man descended from the Persian oud.

This tankard, with its lyrical motion of roses, tulips, and hyacinth sprays, was made at the famous kilns of Iznik, a city near the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Iznik ceramics were not only popular in Anatolia (present-day Turkey), they were also one of the most highly valued Islamic wares in Europe. The Anatolian tulips, which were first introduced to Holland from Constantinople in the sixteenth century, were also a very desirable commodity. Tulip bulbs were bought and sold for enormous prices, speculation in tulips was rampant among all classes of people, and gardeners vied with each other to produce new varieties and colors.

This box was crafted in the form of a mandala, a diagram of the Buddhist cosmic realm. The lid comprises eight concentrically raised surfaces that create a path of contemplation for Buddhist devotees. An abstract temple complex with elaborate gates defines the inner levels, in which attendants and protective deities circle around a central benevolent goddess. Various attributes identify her as Ushnishavijaya, a popular deity in Tibet, who is invoked for the granting of long life. Of her six arms, the lower right is in varada (boon dispensing) gesture, and the lower left holds a simple vessel, her vase of fortune.

In the ritualized milieu of the Chinese court during the Qing Dynasty (1664–1911), textiles were highly charged with spiritual and political significance. Court regulation focused on the color and iconography of garments in order to signal distinctions of rank and entitlement. More than merely a marker of identity, however, court attire followed the Confucian ideal that appropriate apparel was crucial to virtuous conduct and, even more, to the success of specific events. This impressive, semiformal court robe (jifu, or auspicious clothing) would have been worn by the emperor at audiences when affairs of state were determined.

Caravans of Bactrian camels—the unruly but resilient two-hump creatures that are capable of sensing sandstorms and detecting subterranean water—crossed the deserts, mountains, and plateaus between commercial destinations in the Near East and west and north-central China. Like their Central Asian grooms, these beasts undoubtedly traveled in relays over thousands of miles. Equipped with collapsible packboards between their humps, they carried all manner of travel necessities and commercial luxuries in both directions—Chinese ceramics, currency, and silk; Western glass, musical instruments, and precious minerals—the most prominent of which are realistically depicted on burial figures. Most commodities, however, were gleaned from written records and from archaeological finds that were continually unearthed along their routes.

This sculpture depicts the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, in a “final nirvana” posture on a lotus base. The goal of Buddhism is to become enlightened and reach nirvana. Nirvana is believed to be attainable only with the elimination of all greed, hatred, and ignorance within a person. Nirvana signifies the end of the cycle of death and rebirth. Some Buddhists think of nirvana as a type of heaven where there is no suffering; other Buddhists view nirvana as a state of mind free from suffering. According to Buddhist belief, a final nirvana is attained at the time of an enlightened being’s death, when that person is no longer part of the cycle of reincarnation and death. The Buddha is lying on his right side, his head resting on the palm of the upturned hand placed on a cushion. His left hand is stretched out. This sculpture is located in Shandong, China.

Throughout China’s imperial history, large, swift horses were vital to the empire’s security. Stocky domesticated breeds, powerless against cavalry mounts of nomadic tribes, stimulated aggressive efforts to obtain superior horses through military conquest and commercial exchange. Historical records of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) document both private and government trade of Chinese silk for Central Asian horses. By the Tang Dynasty, when this burial model was made, China’s focus had shifted to horses bred in the Central Asian region of Turkestan (between Iran and Siberia). The Chinese expended vast resources of silk, tea, and government funds to obtain Turkish horses for war as well as aristocratic sport.