Cat. 3
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Christianity in Asia
Sacred Art and Visual Splendour
As Christianity spread across Asia, new works of art were created that
were used to tell Christian stories, decorate churches, and motivate new
believers. Asian Christian art often combines well-established European
imagery with Asian artistic traditions.
Traders and missionaries
Christianity has an ancient presence in Asia. Traders brought their faith
when they settled in Central Asia, China, and India by the 7th century.
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In the 16th century, the Portuguese established a sea route to Asia to
trade for rare goods. Both the Portuguese and the Spanish brought
Catholic missionaries with them. Goa, Macau, Manila, and Nagasaki
became bases for trade and Christian missions. In the 17th century, the
Dutch Protestants also began to seek converts in Southeast Asia, centred
in Batavia (Jakarta).
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PLAN OF THE GALLERY
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Large numbers of Christian objects were commissioned in Asia, although
few of the artists were actually Christian. Local artists worked in media
and styles they knew best, and added their own elements to European
subjects. For example, artists in Goa, Sri Lanka, and China excelled in
ivory carving, and they shifted easily from Hindu and Buddhist subjects to
Christian themes. Potters in China made porcelain images of the Virgin
and Child with elements drawn from Buddhist Guanyin figures.
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Asian art with Christian themes
Christian art made in Asia had many different audiences. New churches
and converts required images for services and private devotion. And
many of the finer Asian works were exported to Europe and the Americas.
A wide interest in Christian art
In addition, some patrons were not actually Christian themselves. Many
Asian rulers took an interest in the religion, and collected Christian images
even if they did not convert. These included the Muslim courts of Syria,
Iran, and Mughal India; the Chinese imperial court; and warlords in Japan.
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The worldwide demand for Asian art
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India
Exotic materials
Saint Thomas Christians
Rare materials found in Asia – ivory, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell,
and precious stones – were employed to make Christian art, using a
variety of techniques that were then unknown in the West. Not surprisingly,
these objects were often treated as luxury goods at the royal courts in
Europe, and were subsequently sent around the world.
Christianity was established in India as early as the 7th century, probably
through traders from the Persian Gulf. Called Saint Thomas Christians, this
community flourished in southern India.
Catholic missions under the Portuguese
After Goa came under Portuguese rule in 1510, Christian conversion and the
building of churches was so impressive that the city was called the “Rome of
the East”. Artists of many faiths produced Christian images that were needed
by the Catholic orders. Sri Lankan artists were noted as fine ivory carvers, and
artists in Gujarat and Goa made inlaid furniture and silver objects. Many were
of such high quality that they were exported around the world.
Variations
While many Asian Christian objects are based on European examples,
they are not mere copies. Artists created imaginative variations, and
interpreted subjects in innovative ways. For example, the subjects of the
Christ Child and the Good Shepherd took on new forms in Asian art.
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Authority and dissent in India
Saint Francis Xavier: India, Japan,
Malacca
Some European priests worried that Indian converts still observed Hindu or
Muslim customs. In 1560, the Inquisition was established at Goa to stamp
out these activities, leading to numerous trials and the execution of more
than 50 converts.
Born in the Basque region of Spain, Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was one of
the principal Christian missionaries to Asia. He helped found the Society
of Jesus, whose members are known as Jesuits. In 1542, he arrived in Goa
(India), and visited Malacca, the Molucca Islands, and Japan, gaining
many converts. In 1552 he passed through the Straits of Singapore on his
way to China. But he was not allowed to preach in China itself, and he
died on an island off the coast of southern China.
Francis believed in incorporating local customs and beliefs into his
preaching, an approach that was highly influential on later Jesuits. For
example, they took on attributes of Buddhist monks, and attempted to
accommodate Confucianism and ancestral rituals into their vision of
Christianity.
Francis Xavier was made a saint in 1622, leading to a cult of devotion to
him, as images and objects were produced for his followers.
The earlier Christian communities in India were brought under Catholic
control. The Synod of Diamper in 1599 condemned the customs of these
Indian Christians and ordered strict adherence to Roman Catholic
doctrines. As a result, the Saint Thomas Christians declared their
independence from Catholic authority in 1653, a move encouraged by
the Dutch, who had displaced the Portuguese in South India.
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The Mughal court’s fascination with
Christianity
The Mughal emperors Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) and his son Jahangir (reigned
1605–27) established close contacts with the Jesuits. Akbar was interested in
many different religions and held religious debates at his court, to which the
Jesuits were invited. Although these emperors never converted to Christianity,
as the Jesuits had hoped, the Jesuits were welcome in the centres of power.
Christian art at a Muslim court
The Mughal rulers were given European prints and paintings, and they
also commissioned many Christian images from their own court artists. The
result is a rich body of Christian art created by Muslim and Hindu artists,
made for the Muslim rulers. Although often based in European examples,
the Mughal works are imaginative variations, never slavish copies.
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China
Beginnings in the Tang dynasty, 7th century
The earliest evidence of Christianity in China appears in the 7th century,
when the Tang emperor officially recognized the Church of the East.
This spirit of tolerance was periodically revived, for example by the Wanli
Emperor around 1600, by the Kangxi Emperor (who issued another edict of
tolerance in 1692), and the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century.
Matteo Ricci, the scholar Christian
The charismatic Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) and other Jesuit missionaries
arrived in China in the late 16th century. Ricci dressed as a Confucian
scholar, and used his vast knowledge of science to gain favour with
scholar officials. He attempted to incorporate Confucianism and Chinese
ancestral rituals into his preaching. This method of accommodation was
initially rejected by the Franciscan and Dominican orders.
Art for export
China produced porcelain and ivory carvings with Christian subjects,
much of it for export to the West through Macau and Guangzhou. And
Chinese embroidered silks were used as liturgical vestments.
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Japan
Christianity in Japan grew as part of a symbiosis of trade and evangelism.
Jesuit missionaries arrived with Portuguese traders in 1549, and other
orders later followed. Until around 1600, Catholic missionaries had great
success. But trade disputes and internal Japanese political developments
caused it all to unravel. A series of persecutions and prohibitions led to the
execution of Catholics (most of them Japanese) in 1597, and the banning
of most foreigners from the country in 1643.
After nearly 300 years, the ban against Christianity was lifted. Some hidden
Christians re-emerged to reconnect with the Catholic faith, but others
continued to worship in secret.
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The Painting Academy in Japan
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The Jesuits set up a Painting Academy to teach art to Japanese students
who would produce Christian images for churches and the growing
numbers of Japanese Christians. They also made art for export to the rest
of Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Prized around the world, delicate and refined ivory sculptures were
carved in Goa, Sri Lanka, Macau, Manila, and perhaps Ayutthaya and
Nagasaki, as well as other centres yet to be identified. While the Christian
subjects are rooted in European art stretching back to the Middle Ages,
Asian ivories of the late 16th and 17th centuries exhibit distinct and highly
imaginative forms.
The Jesuits used art to instruct, delight, and move audiences. And for a
time, European culture was generally in vogue in Japan. Some samurai
wore rosaries and crucifixes, or had Christian motifs added to the
decoration of swords and clothing. Conversion of warlords aided the
spread of Christianity in Japan.
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Chinese workshops in Manila, Macau, Quanzhou, and
Guangzhou
The demand for ivory sculpture encouraged workshops to open in several
regions. This international group of objects eludes convenient classification
of city, region, and European colonial network to become a true crosscultural art form.
The Philippines
Spain established a colony in the Philippines in 1564. Like the Portuguese,
they were eager to spread Catholicism, and combined missionary work
with trade and conquest. The religion spread rapidly, but idiosyncratic
elements were incorporated, including local deities and the use of
amulets and spirit mediums. Some indigenous communities resisted
conversion, and Spanish hostility towards Islam triggered struggles with
Muslims in the south. Today the Philippines is the third largest Catholic
population in the world.
The domestic market for Christian art was driven by locals, mestizos, and
locally born Spanish families. Many of these families built private altars and
commissioned images for their homes. Christian ivory carvings produced
in Manila, often by Chinese immigrant artists, were exported to Spain,
Mexico, Latin America, and other regions.
Asian Christian Ivories
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Southeast Asia
The Philippines and East Timor (Timor-Leste) are overwhelmingly Catholic
countries, and there is a substantial Christian population in Singapore.
Christian communities were also established on Flores, and among the
Karen in Myanmar, Bataks on Sumatra, and the Minahassa on Sulawesi.
Francis Xavier led a mission to the Molucca Islands in 1546–47.
In Vietnam Catholic missionary success preceded French colonialism.
In 1862 they forced the Vietnamese to cede southern Vietnam, partly
justified by the goal of protecting French Vietnamese Catholic converts
from persecution.
By 1900 conversion was regarded as a tool for social transformation,
bringing modernity and greater state control to isolated groups in the
interior who practised indigenous beliefs rooted in animism and ancestor
veneration.
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Protestants in the Dutch Indies
Dutch and British Protestant missionaries came to Asia in the 17th century,
but with only minimal support of their home countries. The Dutch and
English trading companies feared over-zealous missionary activity might
damage trade, and so did not promote Christianity until the 19th century.
Images were not used in Protestant religious practice, so artistic
production was confined to furniture. Some Old Testament stories, such as
Adam and Eve, were quite popular. Dutch missionaries arrived in Batavia
(Jakarta) in the early 17th century and tried to convert locals and the new
Chinese immigrants. They regarded Christianity as a means of connecting
immigrants to a new life in Southeast Asia.
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Singapore
The first Christian mission to Singapore arrived in 1819, the same year
Stamford Raffles landed on the island. In 1836, the Armenian community
opened Singapore’s first Christian church, dedicated to Saint Gregory the
Illuminator. Both Protestants and Catholics set up schools, ran orphanages
and shelters for the poor, and pushed for social reform.
Female missionaries advocated for the education and social
advancement of women. Throughout Asia, education was a crucial
strategy for conversion. Immigrants and locals enrolled their children in
these schools to acquire an education that they hoped would lead to
better opportunities under the British government.
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