Face to face : the transcendence of the arts in China and beyond : approaches to modern and contemporary art / edited by Rui Oliveira Lopes.

On leaf following cover: Centro de Investigação e Estudos em Belas-Artes. Secção de ciẽncias da arte e do património de Francisco de Holanda.

Papers originally presented at a conference organized by the Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa and held in Lisbon from 3rd-5th April 2013.

“This book is published on the occasion of the research project Face to face : the transcendence of the arts in China and beyond coordinated by Rui Oliveira Lopes and Fernando António Baptista Pereira, from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon"--Preliminary page.

"Art in a Global Perspective is a programme iniated by Rui Oliveira Lopes in 2011 at the Artistic Studies Research Centre (CIBA) Faculty of Fine Arts., University of Lisbon (FBAUL)"--Page [3].

"The present book intends to examine the place of Chinese Modern and Contemporary art, the emergence and development of China's avant-garde and their expanses worldwide, the display and representation of Chinese art in the West, and the issues related with cultural appropriation, artistic interaction, geographical delimitation, rejection of cultural tradition, and intervention as a means of artistic expression, and cultural distinctiveness related with artistic creation. For this purpose, this volume includes a selection of papers recommended by a committee of scholars as well as papers authored by other prominent scholars invited to collaborate in this project. The papers in this book are divided in two sections covering two chronological periods: 19th century and Modern art; and Contemporary art, starting soon after the end of the Cultural Revolution. This book offers some starting points for the study of the arts in China and its aesthetic expanses throughout the world during the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. Whereas some of the papers move towards the display of Chinese modern and contemporary art in Europe and US; the emergence and development of marketplace for the international commercialization of Chinese painting during the Republican period; and the interactions between Western advertising and graphic design, and Chinese propaganda visual culture; others are more grounded to mutual influence of philosophical and conceptual content; to the recontextualization of Chinese tradition and cultural environment; to the interplay between art, politics and intervention; and finally to the formation of Chinese avant-garde and their artistic expression by different kinds of media such as performance, photography, installation and film, unusual in the history of Chinese art scene"--Amazon.com.

Local access dig.pdf. [Lopes-Chengshi moyan.pdf]

Abstract: The early seventeenth century is noted for the fruitful cultural, religious, and artistic exchange between Europe and the Chinese imperial court. The missionaries of the Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu) became a prominent bridge connecting the two distinct cultures, where the main differences were, at the same time, the reason for their mutual allure. At that time, Jesuit priests, such as Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), João da Rocha (1587–1639), and Giulio Aleni (1582–1649), contributed significantly not only to the dissemination of Christianity in Beijing, Nanjing, and other important cities beyond the Portuguese administration of Macau, but also to the transmission of Western knowledge and technology. Along with the flow of goods and rare commodities brought from Europe which overwhelmed the Chinese emperors of the late Ming and High Qing courts, Western art was introduced into China as a synthesis of visual science, artistic sophistication, and eloquence, explaining why it became so valuable, particularly during the time of the three Qing emperors, Kangxi (1654– 1722), Yongzheng (1678–1735), and Qianlong (1711–99). The modus operandi in the apostolic ministry of the Society of Jesus around the world is well known for the use of images as a visual explanation of Christian doctrine, particularly in China, India, and Japan. The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (Exercitia Spiritualia), composed between 1522 and 1524, suggests that the images should be referred to as a reflection on the word, demonstrating the complementary function between text and images in the explanation of Christian teachings. This article discusses the agency of one of the earliest sets of European prints used in the context of the Jesuit mission in China as a visual explanation of biblical teachings. By means of iconographic examination and iconological approach, it examines how Christian prints included in the Chengshi moyuan 程氏墨苑 (The Ink Garden of Mr. Cheng) were used as a visual reasoning of the scriptures, demonstrating that the three biblical prints were linked to each other and purposely put together as a result of a doctrinal program.

Keywords: European prints in China, artistic exchange, Jesuits in China, Matteo Ricci, Chengshi moyuan, Ming dynasty, spiritual exercises