Both portraits have the same composition: one is an ink-wash painting in red and yellow on paper; the other, an oil painting is on canvas. They might have been painted by the same artist, but we cannot know for sure.

Giovanni Donato Mezzafalce 何納篤 (1661-1720) was born in Butoni, Italy. He joined the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri while in Rome in 1691 and was ordained a priest. He arrived in China in 1697 or 1700. After a stay of several months in Fujian, he asked to be transferred to Zhejiang where he founded a new mission in Xiaoshan 蕭山縣 , southeast of Hangzhou. The Papal Legate Maillard de Tournon named him provicar of Huguang 湖廣 in 1705. However, it happened that the Vicar Apostolic of Zhejiang died that year and Mezzafalce was appointed to succeed him instead of proceeding to Huguang. In 1706, together with Charles Maigrot, Vicar Apostolic of Fujian, Mezzafalce was expelled to Macao by order of the Kangxi Emperor. He was forced to return to Europe in 1707. Mezzafalce became a beneficiary of St. Peter's in Rome where he died on August 30, 1720. Together with Charles Maigrot, Giovan Francesco Nicolai, Giovan Giacomo Farinelli, Nicolas Charmot and Ignatius Giampé, Mezzafalce contributed to the papal constitution Ex illa die (March 19, 1715) with which Clement XI condemned the Jesuit method adopted in China, while allowing the passive presence of Christians at ceremonies 'cum aliter odia et inimicitiae vitari non possunt'.

Reference:

[1]. CHAN, A. (2002). Chinese books and documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome: descriptive catalogue: Japonica-Sinica I-IV . Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, pp.446-447.

[2]. FATICA, M. (1991). Matteo Ripa: Giornale (1705-1724) (vol. I, p. 203 nt. 2). Napoli: Instituto Universitario Orientale.

[3]. Istituto della enciclopedia italiana. (2013). NICOLAI, Giovan Francesco. In Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 78. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana.

[4]. 胡光华. (2004). 明清西方油画传入中国研究. 美术, (1), 122-129.

[5]. Raphaelis De Martinis. (1889). Iuris Pontificii de propaganda fide pars secunda, complectens decreta, instructiones, encyclicas, literas etc. / ab eadem congregatione lata; nunc primum collecta cura ac studio Raphaelis De Martinis (p. 307). Roma.

Informações relevantes

Data de atualização: 2020/09/08