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The Chinese Convert
''The Chinese Convert'' is a 1687 painting by Godfrey Kneller depicting the Chinese Catholic convert Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung. The painting was ordered by King James II when he met Shen Fu-Tsung during his visit to England in 1685. The king was so delighted by this visit that he commissioned the portrait, and had it hung in his bedroom. The portrait remains in the Royal Collection, and usually still hangs at Windsor Castle. Shen also visited Oxford, where he helped catalogue the Bodleian Library's collection of Chinese books. Shen left China in 1681 with Philippe Couplet SJ for a tour of Europe, where Couplet planned to promote the Jesuit's China Mission and plead the Jesuit cause before Pope Innocent XI. Couplet was to be accompanied by five Chinese candidates for the priesthood, including Wu Li (Simon de Cunha) and Shen Fuzhong (Michael Shen). In the end only Michael Shen and another young candidate left with Couplet, and after a delay in Batavia Batavia may r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to Kingdom of England, English and British monarchs from Charles II of England, Charles II to George I of the United Kingdom, George I. His major works include ''The Chinese Convert'' (1687; Royal Collection, London); a series of four portraits of Isaac Newton painted at various junctures of the latter's life; a series of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France; over 40 "kit-cat portraits" of members of the Kit-Cat Club; and ten "Hampton Court Beauties, beauties" of the court of William III of England, William III, to match a similar series of ten of Charles II's Windsor Beauties, mistresses painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Sir Peter Lely. Early life Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Za ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Li
Wu Li, SJ (); ca. 1632-1718 was a Chinese landscape painter, poet, calligrapher and Jesuit from Jiangsu who lived during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). Wu was born in Changzhou in the Jiangsu province of China. His style name was 'Yu Shan' and his sobriquet was 'Mojing Daoren'. Wu learned poetry from Qian Qianyi. He was taught painting by Wang Shimin and Wang Jian, and was influenced by the painters Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng. His landscapes utilized dry brush strokes and light colors. His distinctive style elevated him to where he is now identified as one of the Six Masters of the early Qing period. Wu converted to Catholicism, and became a member of the Society of Jesus. In 1688, after seven years of training at St. Paul's College, Macau, he was ordained one of the three first Chinese Jesuit priests, taking the name ''Simon-Xavier a Cunha''. He spent the remaining 30 years of his life serving tirelessly as priest in rural villages. The dramatic decline and fall of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
17th-century Portraits
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (Roman numerals, MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (Roman numerals, MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the Spanish Golden Age, the Dutch Golden Age, the French ''Grand Siècle'' dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and megacorporation known as the Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians, the General Crisis. From the mid-17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded royal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portraits By British Artists
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. History Prehistorical portraiture Plastered human skulls were reconstructed human skulls that were made in the ancient Levant between 9000 and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. Historical portraitur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paintings By Godfrey Kneller
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. In art, the term ''painting ''describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting"). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf, and even whole objects. Painting is an important form in the visual arts, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture (as in gestural painting), narration (as in narrative art), and abstraction (as in abstract art). Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting), photographic, abstract, nar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary II Of England
Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III of England, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife Anne Hyde. Mary and her sister Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Anne were raised as Anglicans at the behest of their uncle, Charles II of England, King Charles II, although their parents both List of converts to Catholicism, converted to Roman Catholicism. Charles lacked legitimate children, making Mary second in the Succession to the British throne, line of succession. She Cousin marriage, married her first cousin, William of Orange, a Protestantism, Protestant, in 1677. Charles died in 1685 and James took the throne, making Mary heir presumptive. James's attempts at rule by decree and the birth of his son from a second marriage, James Francis Edwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William III Of England
William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Utrecht, Guelders, and Lordship of Overijssel, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s, and King of England, Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland, and List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is sometimes informally known as "King Billy" in Ireland and Scotland. His victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is The Twelfth, commemorated by Unionism in the United Kingdom, Unionists, who display Orange Order, orange colours in his honour. He ruled Britain alongside his wife and cousin, Queen Mary II, and popular histories usually refer to their reign as that of "William and Mary". William was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the Dutch throne. From October 1801 onward, it was known as the Batavian Commonwealth ( nl, Bataafs Gemenebest). Both names refer to the Germanic tribe of the ''Batavi'', representing both the Dutch ancestry and their ancient quest for liberty in their nationalistic lore. In early 1795, intervention by the French Republic led to the downfall of the old Dutch Republic. The new Republic enjoyed widespread support from the Dutch populace and was the product of a genuine popular revolution. However, it was founded with the armed support of the French revolutionary forces. The Batavian Republic became a client state, the first of the " sister-republics", and later part of the French Empire of Napoleon. Its politics were deeply in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI ( la, Innocentius XI; it, Innocenzo XI; 16 May 1611 – 12 August 1689), born Benedetto Odescalchi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 21 September 1676 to his death on August 12, 1689. Political and religious tensions with Louis XIV of France were a constant preoccupation for Innocent XI. Within the Papal States, he lowered taxes, produced a surplus in the papal budget and repudiated nepotism within the Church. Innocent XI was frugal in his governance of the Papal States, his methods evident in matters ranging from his manner of dress to a wide range of standards of personal behavior consistent with his conception of Christian values. Once he was elected to the papacy, he applied himself to moral and administrative reform of the Roman Curia. He abolished sinecures and pushed for greater simplicity in preaching as well as greater reverence in worship, requesting this of both the clergy and faithful. In consideration of his di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung
Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu-Tsung, SJ, also known as Michel Sin, Michel Chin-fo-tsoung, Shen Fo-tsung, or Shen Fuzong (, 1691),''Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome'' By Albert Chan (2002) p.395 was a Chinese and Jesuit from . He was a convert to who was br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippe Couplet
Philippe or Philip Couplet (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire. He worked with his fellow missionaries to compile the influential ''Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese'', published in Paris in 1687. As his works were in Latin, he is also sometimes known as . Life Early life Philippe Couplet was born in Mechelen in the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) in 1623. He entered the Jesuit Order in 1640. In China (1656–1681) Couplet's interest in China was aroused by a lecture by Martino Martini, a former Jesuit missionary there. Couplet initially left for China in 1656, in a group of new Jesuit recruits led by Michał Boym, who was returning to China with the Pope's response to the Southern Ming's Yongli Emperor plea for help. Couplet took various responsibilities throughout China, but had to take refuge in Canton during the 1665–1670 persecutions. Couplet worked closely with Candida Xu (, Xu Gandida; 1607–1680 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. In 2000, a number of libraries within the University of Oxford were brought together for administrative purposes under the aegis of what was initially known as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), and since 2010 as the Bodleian Libraries, of which the Bodleian Library is the largest comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
