Abstract

Jesuit missionaries and foreign ambassadors brought Galilean and Keplerian telescopes with them to China in the seventeenth century, revolutionizing Chinese astronomical practices. Although the telescope was introduced to China as a technological innovation, it became an emblem of political power, catering to different groups’ agendas (Jesuits, emperors, and artisans), and became a signifier in paintings, helping us reach significant new conclusions about how material culture affects visual culture. This article discusses the depiction of the telescope in two paintings by the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), who arrived in China in 1715 and became one of the country’s most highly regarded Jesuit painters working in a Sino-European style. I demonstrate the value of considering the telescope as an instrument for better understanding the broader historical patterns and trajectories that connected China and the West through the long eighteenth century.