In June, Brazilian art historian Prof Maria Berbara will visit Radboud University in her role as RICH fellow. During her stay, she will give a lecture on Thursday 12 June about how early modern maps did not just display the world, but also reinforced colonial fantasies of fortune, order and power.
Brazil as a colonial Eden
Berbara’s lecture, “The Promised Land of Wood: Brazil in European Cartographic Representations from the Early Modern Period,” shows how 16th and 17th century maps and pictures portrayed Brazil as an isle of plenty. Endless forests of brazilwood, a landscape without resistance, a population that willingly let themselves be put to work — this visual paradise matched perfectly with European colonial desires. These maps were not neutral documents, but visual constructions that helped justify economic exploitation and power relations. Echoes of this image can still be heard in current day discussions about extraction, identity and geographical inequality.
The lecture will take place on Thursday 12 June from 3.30pm to 5pm in E 2.50, and will be followed by drinks in CC. More information can be found on the event page.
Maria Berbara
Maria Berbara is professor of art history at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She obtained her PhD at Hamburg University and specialises in art, culture and knowledge exchanges in the Atlantic area between the 15th and 17th centuries. Her research encompasses themes like ‘Antarctic France,’ representations of the Tupinambá, images of youth, extractivism in maps and the role of art in religious conversion and illness.
She co-coordinates the international project “The Amazon Basin as Connecting Borderland,” funded by the Getty Foundation (2023-2025), and has previously collaborated with Villia I Tatti (Harvard), the Getty Research Institute and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts of Washington D.C.
RICH Fellowship Programme
Berbara’s visit to Radboud is part of the RICH Fellowship Programme, which invites international researchers to collaborate with the RICH community in order to contribute to the interdisciplinary research landscape of Radboud University.