Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the functional transformation of Jesuit church facades built in Macao and Beijing during the early modern period. Special Attention will be paid to their hybrid architectural forms and the visual strategies of Jesuits used to enhance their reputation in certain regions.

Paper long abstract:

Concerning the visual art, it should be emphasized that the Jesuits are among the most flexible and practical patrons in the world. Indeed, observations on churches in missionary or colonial regions suggest that their search for an unique style and a corporate identity was often, compared to their desire for 'success' in the missionary work, degraded to secondary interest.

Primary focus of this paper will be paid to the comprehensive comparison of the façade of St. Paul in Macao and that of Nantang (Portuguese College Church) in Beijing, which represented the heyday of Jesuit ecclesiastical art in both regions, while the political circumstances and artistic conditions of both differed to a large extent from each other. Following Evonne Levy's (2004) argument that Jesuit art was de facto an art of propaganda, I will first investigate the structural transformation of façade in both regions, and on the base of that, try to provide reasonable answers to the relevant questions such as how could separated architectural and ornamental components originated from different missionary and colonial regions be integrated into a whole by applying Lothar Ledderose's (1999) theory of modules and modular production.

Besides this, in the context of Western and Chinese cultural and artistic encounters I will raise question of how Jesuits flexibly transformed the function of their church façades from 'propaganda' to 'representation' and modified them by appropriating the local culture.