Textual Research on “The Scenic Illusion Painting of the Feast of the Sacred Heart in Beitang” in National Library of France

Abstract:National Library of France keeps a scenic illusion (or Tongjing) painting of a Catholic church, an anonymous painting in Qing Dynasty combining Chinese and Western styles, which was purchased from an auction house in Paris in 1968 and collected in National Library of France in 1974. Because of its unknown origin, the painting was not recorded in the early electronic catalogue of National Library of France and was simply marked as Ceremony in front of a church in Beijing in the catalogue of the epigraphy paintings printed for library internal use in 1990. In recent years, it was confirmed to be “Beitang” (the North Church) which Emperor Kangxi had ordered to be built for French Jesuit missionaries at Canchikou in Beijing, the more details of this painting has been gradually unveiled. Compared with the works of Chinese Catholic art at that period, this painting is not only different in style, but also unique for the study on religious practices of urban Catholic communities in modern China. This paper attempts to re-examine the correspondence of French missionaries and the relevant historical data of Jesuit court painters, infer the approximate date of this painting and its author, and briefly review the historical changes of Beitang.

Key words:Beitang; tongjing; scenic illusion; Jesuit; Lazarist; Catholic art

CAQ 2019 6-2 001