Nanban art

Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods

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• published: 08 Apr 2013
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The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College presents a groundbreaking exhibition of rare nanban art: works influenced by the arrival of the nanban-jin or “southern barbarians”—European missionaries and merchants in Japan—during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods will be on exclusive display from February 16 through June 2, 2013. The exhibition examines cultural exchanges during this period, through the movement of goods on Portuguese ships that took over four years of travel roundtrip—from Portugal to Japan, with extended stopovers in India and China. It explores transformations in Japan’s political, cultural, artistic, technological, and linguistic spheres during the nanban-jin presence—from the arrival of the Portuguese (c. 1543) and the introduction of Christianity by St. Francis Xavier (1549), until the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639. Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan highlights a period of internationalism that gave way to Japanese insularity following the departure of the Portuguese. The viewer travels through the complex landscape of religious ideas, customs, and artistic styles that typified the nanban period as an age of exploration. “Boston College, one of the premier Jesuit universities in the world, is pleased to collaborate with the government of Portugal and Portuguese institutions on this groundbreaking exhibition examining—through the display of magnificent nanban works of art—the cultural, spiritual, and artistic exchange among Portuguese, Jesuits, and Japanese in the ‘Age of Exploration,’” says McMullen Museum Director and Professor of Art History Nancy Netzer. The exhibitioncomprises seventy works; central to the narrative are seven magnificent folding screens that illustrate Japanese encounters with visiting Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries. Examples of the objects depicted on the screens also will be on display: elaborately decorated Japanese furniture, lacquerware, and military equipment; Indian and Chinese ceramics, textiles, and furniture; and paintings by Jesuit-trained Japanese artists. In addition to rare European and Japanese maps, the artifacts and screens tell a fuller story than that documented in contemporary texts. More info: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/exhibitions/archive/jesuits/ http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/press/pjj.html