ATTIRET, JEAN-DENIS. - Painter and Jesuit missionary, b. at Dôle on 31 July 1702, d. at Peking on 8 Dec. 1768. Trained in his family in the art of painting and perfected in Rome, he entered in 1735, as a coadjutor brother, the Society of Jesus and set out, two years later, for Peking, where artists were much in demand, in order to preserve the emperor's benevolence toward Christianity and the tolerance of the apostolate, and where the Italian confrere G. Castiglione (v.) was already present. His first painting, an Adoration of the Magi, pleased the emperor Kien-long so much that he wanted A. at the palace to practice his art there. This he did with the utmost patience, renouncing his own taste to adapt himself to the Chinese taste for watercolor and for the minutiae of landscapes and decorations; but thereby also fully winning the esteem and love of the sovereign, who always wanted him with him on his journeys, had him paint the portraits of the Tatar princes and thought of making him a mandarin. But A. succeeded in diverting that honor from himself. His funeral was held at the expense of the imperial treasury.
Almost all of his works, preserved in the old imperial palaces, are known only from descriptions; however, the series of sixteen battles of the Chinese against the Tatars was later engraved in France by Cochin, in 1774; a Guardian Angel is also known, preserved in the church of Peking. There is also extant a long letter by him, in which he describes his journey and the imperial palaces, published in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, ed. Aimé Martin, III, Paris 1843, pp. 786-95.
Bibliography5 works
Celestino Tristore