Visual interplays between East and West: Andrea Pozzo’s legacy in China / Mancini, Matteo Flavio

Nexus Network Journal, 2026, 21 pp.

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Abstract: This essay explores 18th-century Sino-European cultural exchange through the lens of linear perspective, focusing on Jesuit missionaries as intermediaries of science and art. It examines the influence of Andrea Pozzo’s Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum on Nian Xiyao’s 年希堯 (1671-1738) Shi xue 視學. Developed with Giuseppe Castiglione, this work became the first Chinese treatise on perspective, adapting European geometry to Chinese visual culture. The paper analyses the structure of the Shi xue, identifying three different relationships with European sources: by borrowing, interpreting and adding to them. It also discusses the application of perspective in xian fa hua 綫法畫 paintings at the Qing court, drawing an analogy with European quadrature and demonstrating the application of linear perspective rules in the artwork Qianlong Emperor Viewing Peacocks. In conclusion, the essay considers perspective to be a tool for intercultural dialogue, giving rise to artworks characterised by both European and Chinese elements.