WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” will be on view June 23–September 16, 2007 in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

This exhibition brings together approximately 350 extraordinary objects reflecting the unprecedented cross-cultural dialogue that followed the establishment of Portugal’s world trading network in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Portugal was the first European nation to build an extensive commercial empire, which soon reached to Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Brazil. Portuguese contact with these regions, which had been virtually unknown to Europeans, led to the creation of highly original works of art, some intended for export and others for domestic consumption in their countries of origin.

Initially displayed in princely “cabinets of wonder” — the ancestors of the modern museum — and other royal and aristocratic collections, and now scattered in museums throughout the world, the paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, maps, early books and other objects assembled here provide a rich image of a “new world” during its formation.

The exhibition is in the Sackler Gallery and in the interconnecting National Museum of African Art. Objects on view in the Sackler Gallery relate to Portugal, the Indian Ocean, China and Japan, as well as Brazil, while the section focusing on West Africa will be displayed at the National Museum of African Art.

The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are at 1050 Independence Avenue Southwest. For information, www.asia.si.edu or 202-633-4880.