This monograph examines from a historical-theological perspective how European Jesuits and Chinese Christians used art in the China missions during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Organised chronologically, Patrick argues that art was integral to Jesuit missions (p. 2) and that European missionaries used it following patterns established in parts of Europe, such as Belgium. Patrick pays equal attention to Chinese Christians’ contributions, an approach which is structurally reinforced in Patrick’s layout of chapters; chapters iii and v underline European Jesuits’ efforts whereas chapters iv and vi analyse the response, active participation and perceptions of their Chinese counterparts.

Patrick’s research pivots around the question of how ‘religious art and architecture play[ed] a role in mission and evangelism’ (p. 6). While most emphasis has been on ‘iconography and artistic exchange’, Patrick examines the ‘theological themes, meanings …, and missionary intentions behind the Jesuit engagement with art’ (p. 6). She identifies three gaps or misrepresentations in this field: the assumption that both European and Asian cultures were singular entities, the lack of scholarly attention towards the connection between women and Chinese Christian art and the undervaluation of the dynamic synergy between multiple religions (p. 7). Patrick’s approach, identified as a ‘combined historical-theological-cultural’ one, studies the ‘motivations for engagement in religious art’, as it was produced by European Jesuits and Chinese (and other ethnic) Christians (p. 17).

Chapter iii, the first of four chronological chapters, analyses Jesuit mission and art in the late Ming dynasty in three ways: how Jesuits brought and adapted their art to a Chinese audience, an exploration of the diverse styles of Jesuit architecture in China and, finally, the theological themes and meanings of art within the overall Jesuit mode of accommodation. Patrick outlines the transition from Europeanisation to accommodation (p. 44) or ‘adaptationism’ (p. 45) with an overview of individual Jesuits’ efforts. As the author unwraps how early Jesuits such as Ricci used art as a conversational medium (p. 50), She quotes extensively from Ricci, Trigault and Gallagher’s 1953 China in the sixteenth century. The later part of this chapter zooms in on Jesuit architecture during the late Ming, once again carefully analysing the global-local synthesis (used to avoid ruffling feathers) with particular examples of local adaptation such as the use of hydras instead of dragons to depict evil creatures slayed by Christian characters (p. 59). In multiple ways, Jesuit art in various media became ‘the handmaiden of the Jesuit Christian mission’ (p. 65). Altogether, ‘Jesuit cultural mixing of art and architectural iconographies’ thus aimed to blend seamlessly in a Chinese environment (p. 70). Chapter iii also shores up the argument that it was not a simple one-way modification of European models into Chinese Christian art: multiple European, Asian and even American cultures had an influence in the creation of Chinese Christian art (p. 71).

A shorter chapter iv untangles the six ways in which people in China ‘responded to and participated in Christian art and architecture’ (p. 78). Firstly, Patrick addresses how Christian art could transform viewers into believers, relying on data from the Ricci primary source (pp. 79, 88). Patrick goes on to examine many more examples drawn from Jesuit writings to illustrate the necessity (p. 80) of art in drawing and possibly transforming Chinese viewers. Some are well-known items whereas others, such as an eight-panel folding screen displayed in the Museum of the Orient in Lisbon, are ‘not yet discussed in academic circles’ (p. 86). Further responses discussed in the chapter include Chinese men and women who acted as patrons of Christian art (pp. 92–5), emphasising the role of Candida Xu (wherein Patrick relies on Noël Golvers as a secondary source paired with Philippe Couplet as a primary source). For an authoritative count of the number of Christians during the Qing dynasty, Patrick uses Mou Zhongjian and Jian Zhang’s General history of religions in China (p. 99); Nicolas Standaert’s Handbook of Christianity in China provides a more conservative number (200,000 versus 248,100). Chapter iii ends with an analysis of Ming house churches.

The first chapter that discusses Qing dynasty Jesuit art has a distinctive bibliographical character; Patrick makes a three-way geographical distinction, between Jesuits working at the Qing court in Beijing, Jesuits in Macau and, finally, Jesuits working and commissioning art beyond these two places. As for those employed by a succession of Qing emperors, Patrick focuses on seven ‘artist-missionaries’ (p. 105). All are presented in bibliographical fashion within a few paragraphs except for Giuseppe Castiglione whose ‘illusionistic perspective’ (p. 106) or, better put, trompe l’oeil (p. 114) and his efforts in establishing what Patrick calls a ‘genius synthesis’ (p. 109) is discussed at more length. A somewhat confusing amalgamation of subtopics follows, from brief sections on cultural synthesis, the Jesuit commissioning of art, Christian iconography on Chinese porcelain and Christian catechetical books, before Patrick delves into Jesuit church architecture – a longer section during which she returns to an analysis organised along geographical lines (p. 120–8). At the end of chapter v Patrick examines four characteristics of Jesuit art and mission: art as a service to the greater glory of God, responses to persecution related to cultural differences in perceiving art, the Jesuit bottom-up mission methodology and the notion of change.

The final chapter returns to Asian Christians, in particular the role of Chinese Jesuits who were also artists, some examples of multi-ethnic minority Christian communities and features of churches in the period (p. 136). Wu Li (c. 1632–1718) is examined as a Chinese Christian who was also a life-long painter, and who ‘did not convert his painting style from Chinese to European’ (p. 138). Patrick focuses on Manchu, Korean and Tibetan Christians in the middle of the chapter, before analysing the women’s churches (p. 143) and the continued role of non-Christian patrons in building Jesuit churches.

To conclude, Patrick emphasises both the historical and theological implications of Chinese Christian art and how it gained meaning via concepts such as ‘via positiva’ (p. 156), art and witness and art and soteriology. Patrick then unfolds the two-fold identity of European Jesuits (p. 159) and the complexity of their art as part of intercultural métissage. Overall, Patrick succeeds in deepening her analysis regarding the recurring themes she identifies in her introduction throughout the entire book in a convincing fashion.