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of the façade as part of broader surveys on the church of St. Paul's or the architecture of the Jesuits in China and, regretfully, not much new has been added to this particular question.
In order to make clearer certain developments related to the façade of St. Paul's, a limited number of churches and altarpieces in Spain and in Portuguese India will be discussed. But because of limitations of time, any detailed references to the ground plans, elevations, and dimensions of St. Paul's or any of these structures or buildings will be left out. It is mainly the façades of buildings as they relate to the main topic that are of greater importance here. Besides these analogies, I will further explore some relevant questions on the development of Jesuit buildings in India first expressed in an article written several years ago.
The Church of St. Paul's, Macao
What once was the Jesuit Church of Madre de Deus, or St. Paul's, is today merely a church front, some 70 feet high, with narrow sections of aisle-walls holding it up at either side at the back. This seventeenth-century ruin is the only remnant of a catastrophic 1835 fire, which destroyed the entire complex of educational and residential buildings of which it was part (Fig. 1).
The impression that it makes today, when it is mainly admired as a relic of a bygone age, is quite different from that which it made to visitors over three and a half centuries ago. At that time, the church stood in full visible splendour on a hill near the city walls, facing the Portuguese city below and the open sea beyond. Ironically, a fire in November of 1600 had destroyed a previous church, which led to the construction of the church of Madre de Deus, the one that in time became the most splendid Christian temple in a transitional Early Baroque style ever to have been built in China. Seventeenth-century visitors marvelled at what was then the new church of a university college, started two years after the November fire and at the time only recently completed with the addition of a brand new façade.
This added structure was an amazing showcase of artistic and social co-operation. Artists of East and West had created it. The Portuguese rectors had supported it. The wealthy citizens of Macao had financed it.
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of the façade as part of broader surveys on the church of St. Paul's or the architecture of the Jesuits in China and. regretfully, not much new has been added to this particular question."
In order to make clearer certain developments related to the façade of St. Paul's a limited number of churches and altarpieces in Spain and in Portuguese India will be discussed. But because of limitations of time any detailed references to the ground plans, elevations and dimensions of St. Paul's or any of these structures or buildings will be left out. It is mainly the façades of buildings as they relate to the main topic that is of greater importance here. Besides these analogies I will further explore some relevant questions on the development of Jesuit buildings in India first expressed in an article written several years ago."
The Church of St. Paul's, Macao
What once was the Jesuit Church of Madre de Deus, or St. Paul's is today merely a church front, some 70 feet high, with narrow sections of aisle-walls holding it up at either side at the back. This seventeenth- century ruin is the only remnant of a catastrophic 1835 fire, which destroyed the entire complex of educational and residential buildings of which it was part (Fig. 1).
The impression that it makes today, when it is mainly admired as a relic of a bygone age, is quite different from that which it made to visitors over three and a half centuries ago. At that time the church stood in full visible splendour on a hill near the city walls, facing the Portuguese city below and the open sea beyond. Ironically a fire in November of 1600 had destroyed a previous church, which led to the construction of the church of Madre de Deus, the one that in time became the most splendid Christian temple in a transitional Early Baroque style ever to have been built in China. Seventeenth-century visitors marvelled at what was then the new church of a university college, started two years after the November fire and at the time only recently completed with the addition of a brand new façade.
This added structure was an amazing showcase of artistic and social co-operation. Artists of East and West had created it. The Portuguese rectors had supported it. The wealthy citizens of Macao had financed
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