Mystery of the cockatoo in a 15th century Italian painting

Time for the West to trash the land grab doctrine of " Discovery" , Australia was never "terra nullis" and had been 'discovered' centuries before the West Discovered and wrested it from the people who have been here for many thousands of years. People who were trading with other people cemturies before the Europeans got here .


Mystery of the cockatoo in a 15th century Italian painting

Beau Donnelly, Bhakthi Puvanenthiran

Andrea Mantegna’s 1496 painting, Madonna della Vittoria, and, inset, the sulphur-crested cockatoo

The appearance of a cockatoo in a 15th century Italian Renaissance painting has led historians to reconsider what they know of early trading routes to Europe.

Upon close inspection of Andrea Mantegna's 1496 painting Madonna della Vit-toria, which hangs in the Louvre, a sulphur-crested cockatoo can be seen in pride of place above the cross.

The revelation comes after a similar one in New York earlier this year. In that case, the image of a kangaroo was seen curled up in the letters of a 16th century Portuguese text, perhaps before any Portuguese ships had seen Australian shores.

University of Melbourne historian Heather Dalton said the presence of the parrot, which is native to the Australiasian region, raised many questions about complex South-East Asian trading networks in the Australiasian region prior to the arrival of Europeans.

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“The most important thing to understand is whether it was the bird itself that travelled or a very detailed sketch or picture of one. Someone would have had to see the cockatoo,” said Dalton who, specialises in 16th Atlantic history but has a keen interest in trade routes.

“The people in our region would have been amazed that it ended up in this cold distant place.”

It is unknown how the exotic animal came to be featured in the 500-year-old painting, as its habitat was considered to be out of trading reach at the time.

Dr Dalton has been investigating the meaning of the cockatoo since she first noticed it a decade ago. “It has been a labour of love for 10 years,” she said. “I was struck when I saw it and thought how on earth did that bird get anywhere near Mantegna.”

Martin Woods from the National Library of Australia agrees the bird's appearance raises some questions.

"The idea that the cockatoo could have been transported from Australia is pretty much out of the question, as there were no known voyages here by Europeans in the late 1400s or 1500s."' he said.

'However, trade in birds was not the exclusive province of Europeans, and birds native to New Guinea (and islands beyond New Guinea, I believe) may well have also been found in nearby Malay or Indochinese markets. So not hard to imagine they could have found their way back to Italy along the Silk Road once the Europeans turned up," he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mystery-of-the-cockatoo-in-a-15th-century-italian-painting-20140319-352oo.html#ixzz2wOmBRDJ4