The technique of the paintings, as does the use of Chinese paper, ink, and paints, suggests that the unknown artist may have been Chinese. The Boxer Codex depicts the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanes or possibly Ibanags, and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid color. The manuscript was likely compiled at the direction of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, or his son, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas. Based on the contents of the manuscript, it can be inferred that it was written in Manila during the early 1590s. The Boxer Codex does not bear any direct statement of authorship or dates of production and there is no dedication that might indicate who was the patron of the work or for whom the work was intended. At least fifteen illustrations deal with the inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago.
The depictions of inhabitants from Chinese tributaries may have been copied from a pre-existing source, drawn from memory or perhaps even drawn according to instruction given by Rada or one of the other Europeans who visited China. The remaining drawings represent individuals, often a male and female pair, as inhabitants from tributaries of China and Taiwan with their distinctive costume some of these have been refashioned as warriors. Most of the drawings appear to have been copied or adapted from materials brought to the Philippines from China by Martin de Rada: the Shānhǎi Jīng (山海经, The Classic of Mountains and Seas), and books from the shenmo (神魔) genre, which depict deities and demons. The first illustration is an oblong fold-out, 74 are full-page colored illustrations and the remaining are arranged four to a page on 22 pages (with some of the quarters remaining blank). It has been pointed out more than once that the depictions of peoples from the Far East are the first ever created for European eyes. Aside from a description of, and historical allusions to what is now the Philippines and various other Far Eastern countries, the codex also contains 97 hand-drawn color paintings and illustrations depicting peoples, birds and animals (both real and mythological) of the Philippines, the Indonesian Archipelago, Japan, Taiwan, China and mainland Southeast Asia. It also contains Taoist mythological deities and demons, and both real and mythological birds and animals copied from popular Chinese texts and books in circulation at the time. The manuscript was written circa 1590 and contains illustrations of ethnic groups in the Philippines, ethnic groups across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Micronesia at the time of the early Spanish contact. 3.2 Foreigners present in the Philippines.3 Picture gallery of the illustrations in Boxer Codex.Eventually Boxer sold the codex to Indiana University where it is held by the Lilly Library. He made the manuscript freely available to other researchers for study and it became known as the "Boxer Codex" in recognition of its owner. Boxer recognized the importance of what he called the "Manila Manuscript" and published a paper in 1950 with a detailed description of the codex. The eminent historian, Charles Ralph Boxer, purchased the manuscript in 1947 from the collection of Lord Ilchester in London. An additional eighty-eight smaller drawings show mythological deities and demons, and both real and mythological birds and animals copied from popular Chinese texts and books in circulation at the time. About 270 pages of Spanish text describe these places, their inhabitants and customs. The document contains seventy-five colored illustrations of the peoples of China, the Philippines, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Siam. The Boxer Codex is a late sixteenth century Spanish manuscript that was produced in the Philippines. Reception of the Manila Galleon by the Chamorro in the Ladrones Islands, ca.
0 kommentar(er)
