Imágenes chinas de historia sagrada

Abstract

The research, divided in two parts, study 381 Christian Chinese images. The first part present the background to understand the works that are the main subject of these work. Start showing the different forms of Christian faith in China –Nestorians, Catholics, Protestants– and the missionary work of the Augustinians friars there. Next, is the development of the printing press in China making reference to the engravings in colour and the antichristian propaganda, and also the printing press of the Catholic, Protestants and Augustinians in the first half of XX Century China. Later, speaks about the important role of the images and the main artistic models that were used in China in the publication of the books about the Christian faith: European engravings, the Bible of Nadal, the designs of the Old and New Testament of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, the Sacred History of
Ignaz Schuster, and the French work “Catechism in Pictures”. In the second part, are studied in detail three Chinese illustrated publications that exist in the Library of Museo Oriental and the Augustinian Convent of Valladolid. The first one, “The Holy History”, published in 1920, presents 82 engravings in black and white of the Old and New Testament, showing the European sources of inspiration. The second one is the “Chinese Catechism with colour illustrations”, published about 1925, where can be seen 20 stories of the Old and New Testament, the Church, death, judgement, purgatory, hell and glory. The third publication is “The most famous History” about the life of Jesus, published in Shanghai in 1950. Was written by Chen Wanli and the artist Chen Guanyi did the 279 colour designs presenting the life of Jesus, the persecution of the early church, the Christian faith promoting art and culture and the seven sacraments. The study is completed with 88 colour illustrations related with the text.