Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibit Features Jesuit Works

An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Commemorating His Majesty,” includes paintings and calligraphies by Jesuits that were imperially commissioned during the Qianlong era in China.

Enamored of Western-style pictorial realism as a documentary medium, the Qianlong Emperor engaged Jesuit missionary artists in the creation of two mammoth records of his successful military campaigns: a set of one hundred full-length portraits of military and civil officials and a group of sixteen copperplate etchings, printed in Paris, that illustrate key victories in the Qing empire’s westward territorial expansion.

The exhibit, which runs through May 1, includes works by Jesuits Giuseppe Castiglione (1688 – 1766), Jean Damascene (d.1781) and Jean-Denis Attiret (1702 – 1768).

The listing of Jesuit works included in the exhibit is available on the New York Province website.