摘要：Two recently discovered ivory objects carved in Sri Lanka – a pipe case and a sculpture of the Virgin and Child, testify to the sophistication of Sinhalese artistic responses to European trading networks in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This essay seeks to contextualize these objects and to highlight the connections between the Portuguese and Dutch empires, normally conceived as separate entities in perennial conflict. Even as scholars turn increasingly to the relationships between the Netherlands and Asia, the limitations of national categories as a means of understanding world trade become evident.
