architectural details derived from ancient Roman grotto decoration, reminds us of decora- tive projects of the early sixteenth century, such as those by Raphael in the Vatican loggias.) ‘There is something more to be said about the juxtaposition in the Medici armeria of New World objects, and in the frescoes depicting the strug- ale between indigenous Mexicans and Europe- fans, with their references to antique Roman decoration. In the sixteenth century there was a desire on the part of Renaissance humanists to understand the New World within its widest possible context. One way to achieve this was to stress points of commonality of ancestry on both sides of the Atlantic. Much was discussed in intellectual elite circles about the origin of ‘the New World gods and their links with ancient Greco-Roman deities. The erudite cul- ‘tures of the Renaissance were fascinated by the confection of genealogies that connected con- tempors of England as the new Astrea, or the kings of Spain as descendants of Hercules were among ‘many such examples. In order to more fully com- prehend the increasing mass of inevitably con- {fusing information about the Americas that was emerging in Europe during the early modern period, such genealogies were fashioned to cre- ate familial associations between the American y rulers with ancient heroes; Elizabeth pantheon of gods and those of the Greco-Roman ‘world. In 1615 the antiquarian Lorenzo Pignoria ‘wrote a gloss in the form of an appendix toa well-known description of the ancient gods of ‘the Mediterranean world, The 1615 edition of Vincenzo Cartari's Imagini deli dei de glantichi attempted to forge connections between them ‘and the deities of the peoples of the New World.” De las Casas, the champion of the Indi ans, stressed in his writings the importance of ‘the similarities that their beliefs shared with ‘the systems of worship of the European pagan world. As the historian Michael T. Ryan has commented, “genealogy was powerful medicine against the confusions introduced by novelties, it served as an appropriate prophylaxis against the impact of the new worlds... To understand new peoples, their language, beliefs, customs, it was necessary to uncover their ancestors and establish creditable chains of transmission back to the earliest days of mankind.... The upshot of these fantastic forays into exotic pasts was to make the new worlds into very old, to reduce ‘the uniqueness to similarity.” Reducing the unknown to more recognizable terms was, of course, a major step in the process of assimilation and conquest, at least culturally, from a European humanistic point of view. Objects played a key role in this project of domi- nation through familiarization. Gotd and silver items, as well as the other indicators of the unfamiliar material culture that reached Europe from the New World, were, in the early moments of the contact, considered fantastical metaphors of "exotic" peoples. Yet the strangeness embod- ied in these items could be neutralized through ‘a more nuanced awareness of their forms and ‘Spanlro (Sta 588. reo a. Ladowea Bul, Monian Solndep Argent, Ut, original use. The things that appeared so awe- striking to Durer in the 1520s were, by the late sixteenth century still objects of curiosity, but ‘through their display (and, in some eases, altera- tion and manipulation) were becoming less won- drous and more easily absorbed intoa European consciousness, They also began to be visually assimilated by a wider audience. By 1574, when Francesco de’ Medici became grand duke of ‘Tuscany, the family collections of curiosities ‘were moved to the newly constructed Uffizi and became accessible to the public. This is not to say, of course, that New World objects had lost their attraction or power. But they eventu- ally became focal points for the interests of scientific-minded collectors such as the Bolognese nobleman and naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, founder of the first botanical gar- den in his native city, in which plants from the Americas were cultivated.» Private curiosity cabinets continued to be formed well into the eighteenth century throughout Europe, and many of them con- tained objects that attested to an enduring centhrallment with the suggestive powers of the “things" of the Americas. Throughout this Wondrous Objects 19