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  • An Illustrated Life of Christ Presented to the Chinese Emperor: The History of Jincheng shuxiang (1640)
  • Claudia von Collani (bio)
Nicolas Standaert . An Illustrated Life of Christ Presented to the Chinese Emperor: The History of Jincheng shuxiang (1640). Monumenta Serica Monograph Series, vol. LIX. Sankt Augustin: Steyler Verlag, 2007. 333 pp. Hardcover €55.00, ISBN 978-3-8050-0548-7.

Nicolas Standaert's book An Illustrated Life of Christ deals with the field known as visual culture, or in this case, visual and sensible religion. Visual culture is the traditional realm of art historians that considers the simultaneous effects of written books and painted pictures, where the former appeals to reason and the latter to emotion. Standaert, professor of Sinology at the University of Leuven, proposes in his book to investigate the emotions of the Chinese viewer excited by pictures of Jesus Christ.

Before representing the images and the text of the book, Standaert explains the background and origin of the book Jincheng shuxiang about Jesus Christ. It was not the first book of that kind in China, but among the most important and beautiful ones. Scenes from the life of Jesus were published in China by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci in 1605 and João da Rocha (1583–1623) in 1619. Another famous book on the life of Jesus Christ with fifty-six engravings was published by Giulio Aleni (1582–1649) from Brescia in Quanzhou in 1637, the Tianzuhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingxie (Explanation of the images of the lord of heaven's incarnation).

When the procurator of the China mission, the Fleming Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), arrived in Europe in 1614, he was confronted with many tasks. According to the order of the Jesuit superior Niccolò Longobardi, he was to continue the advancement of Catholicism in China after the death of the pioneer Matteo Ricci (1552–1610). Trigault not only succeeded in establishing the Chinese vice-province independently from the province of Japan, but also recruited sponsors for the China mission from among the European nobility. One important city in his tour de propagande through Europe was Munich, the capital of Bavaria. The dukes of Wittelsbach were most fervent adherents of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Since the Jesuits specifically were in charge of the Counter-Reformation, they were sponsored by the dukes. Duke Wilhelm V, called "the Pious," had the famous Jesuit church St. Michael built, the biggest Renaissance church north of the Alps, and also a new Jesuit residence in Munich. When Trigault arrived at Munich, he was already well known at the court from his publications, namely the famous De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas suscepta, which contains Matteo Ricci's diary documenting the beginning of Catholic missions in China and a short description of the Chinese Empire. This book was published in Augsburg, and in 1617 the German translation appeared and was dedicated to Duke Wilhelm V. Therefore, the Munich court [End Page 431] received Trigault with great honors when he arrived in August 1616, and Trigault not only received stipends for the China mission, but also precious presents. The most beautiful gift destined for the Chinese emperor was a so-called "Pommern cabinet" (Kunst- oder Wunderkammer), an expensive cabinet made by craftsmen in Augsburg and Munich, that is, in southern Germany (Standaert presents pictures from another Pommern cabinet, which was destroyed during World War II). The precious cabinet was filled with many small artistic objects of daily life in miniature, mathematical and chirurgical instruments, playthings, pharmacy, and writing material. The cabinet for China also included wax figures of the Adoration of Three Magi and a little parchment booklet, dated 1617, with pictures of the main episodes in the life of Jesus.

Besides the beautiful gifts from Europe for China, Trigault also brought along with him a very good library of mainly scientific books and a group of twenty-two Jesuits for the East. Among them were several Jesuits selected to reform the Chinese calendar, namely Johann Schreck (1576–1630), called Terrentius, from Constance; Giacomo Rho (1592–1638) from Milan; and Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) from Cologne, the most important German Jesuit in China. During the course of the calendar reform, they...

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