pintolivros

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Macao's Ruins of St.Paul, whose correct name is the Church of Madre de Deus, is the only example of Baroque art and architecture in China. This book explores anew the now vanished but once renowned Church, as well as the Jesuit university college of which it was part. This work provides a lively critical appraisal of the Church and College, where the first major China-Japan cultural exchange with Europe took place in the 17th century through the agency of the Society of Jesus. Both Church and College disappeared in an 1835 fire and from the perspective of the history of art have remained poorly explored. The author remedies this by imaginatively reconstructing and describing their ground plans, architecture and decoration in the light of new information provided by original documents researched in archives and libraries in Europe and Macao. The most recent art-historical findings on the Mannerist and Baroque art of the Jesuits in Europe and Iberian colonies are also taken into account.The author, who first identified the surviving facade of the Church as a retable-facade, an unusual type of Iberian and Latin American church facade resembling an altarpiece, brings his argument to its logical conclusion by relating it to the Church's plan and decoration.