Page 193 - sfogliabile 49

Infidel friends: Charles V, Mulay Hassan and the theatre of majesty 459

include polygamy and paedophilia . The imperial chroniclers’ writers
44
had a difficult balancing act: they needed to stress his majesty despite
his religious and other forms of deviance, because as the friend and
ally of the Emperor he could be an infidel, but not worthless.
However, the most efficient and visual way to demonstrate his
aristocratic excellence was through chivalric skills. During the
campaign of Tunis, Mulay Hassan and his entourage took part in a
game of canes . This was a type of tournament which had originated
45
in Muslim courts and remained very popular among the Iberian
Christian nobility, and to a lesser extent in Italy. Vermeyen depicted
these Tunisian tournaments as an exotic event for a Flemish audience
in three drawings: one entitled A Fantasy in Tunis: the Game of Canes
46
and two others both known as Military tournament in Tunis . However,
47
it is unclear whether these scenes really depicted the events in Tunis
in 1535, or similar tournaments held in Naples (1536), Valladolid
(1536) or Toledo (1539), because it was normal for the Christian
participants to dress up as Moors, often with clothing bought in the
Kingdom of Tlemcen . The game of canes was also used as a
48
distinctive Spanish contribution to celebrate and enhance important
royal events all around Europe, such as during the celebration of
Phillip II and Mary Tudor’s marriage in London (1554). Games of canes
were more habitual in Italy where Iberian influence was greater, such
as Naples, Rome, Milan, and Bologna, but Italians were also very
familiar with the customs of neighbouring North African Moors and
the Ottoman Empire .
49

44 «Era viciosísimo, sucio en las torpezas de la carne en todo género». P. de Sandoval,
Historia de la vida cit., p. 247.
45 N. Guldin, Relato de la jornada cit., pp. 126-127; P. Giovio, Segunda parte de la
historia cit., ch. 14; P. de Sandoval, Historia de la vida cit., p. 247.
46 J.C. Vermeyen, Une fantasia à Tunis : le jeu des cannes, s.d., Louvre, Cabinet des
dessins, Fonds des dessins et miniatures, Inv. 19191, reproduced and commented in
J.C. Hernández Núñez, Fantasía caballeresca en Túnez, in A.J. Morales (ed.), La Fiesta
en la Europa de Carlos V, SECC, Sevilla, 2000, p. 375; T.-H. Borchert, Reiterphantasie
in Tunis, in L. Altringer et al. (eds.), Kaiser Karl V. (1500-1558): Macht und Ohnmacht
Europas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, 2000, notice 371.2.
47 J.C. Vermeyen, Tournoi militaire à Tunis, s.d., Louvre, Cabinet des dessins, Fonds des
dessins et miniatures, Inv. 19192 and 19193, reproduced and commented in T.-H. Borchert,
Das "Mohrenturnier", in L. Altringer et al. (eds.), Kaiser Karl V. cit., notice 371.1.
48 H.J. Horn, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, painter of Charles V and his conquest of Tunis,
Paintings, Etchings, Drawings, Cartoons and Tapestries, Davaco, Doornspijk, 1989, vol.
I, p. 25; N. Dacos, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, Martin van Heemskerck, Herman Posthumus.
À propos de deux livres récents, «Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art», 60
(1991), p. 100; S. Deswarte-Rose, L’expedition de Tunis cit., p. 118.
49 B. Fuchs, Exotic Nation cit., pp. 94-101; J. Irigoyen-García, ‘Poco os falta para
moros, pues tanto lo parecéis’: Impersonating the Moor in the Spanish Mediterranean,
«Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies», 12:3 (2011), pp. 356-357.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)