In: Face to Face: The transcendence of the arts in China and beyond (Historical Perspectives), 1 (2014), pp. 370-399. ISSN 9789898300492
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Abstract
This paper deals with an 18th century oil painting produced by non-court painter(s) using Western techniques that conveys an etic viewer’s (an outsider’s)perspective of the depicted events. The artwork portrays an unusually solemn Christian procession which took place in a courtyard garden of a church in Beijing. Through the examination of contemporary accounts of rituals practised at the French North Church Beitang in Beijing, and two recently discovered 19th century architectural drawings held by the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., this paper will begin with an iconographic analysis of the ritual depiction. Special attention is paid to the etic narration – the way in which the ritual event has been visually translated and re-constructed.Based on this discussion, I move to a stylistic analysis and reveal its European influences by comparing this painting with other contemporary or later narrative works by missionary court artists and their Chinese helpers, for instance the Wanshuyuan ciyan tu (Imperial Banquet in the Garden of Ten Thousand Trees, 1755). Finally, in the context of Qing court art productions,I analyse how Western pictorial narration influenced the traditional Chinese portrayal of ceremonial events.
Document type: | Article |
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Journal or Publication Title: | Face to Face: The transcendence of the arts in China and beyond (Historical Perspectives) |
Volume: | 1 |
Publisher: | Centro de Investigacao e Estudos em Belas-Artes |
Place of Publication: | Lissabon |
Date Deposited: | 12 Dec 2014 07:30 |
Date: | 2014 |
ISSN: | 9789898300492 |
Page Range: | pp. 370-399 |
Faculties / Institutes: | Philosophische Fakultät > Institut für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens |
DDC-classification: | 700 The arts |
Controlled Keywords: | Jesuiten , Peking , Malerei |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Giuseppe Castiglione, Jesuit, Beitang, Wallpaper, documentary painting, 18th century |