When gnanyin encounters Madonna: Rethinking on Chinese Madonna from the field museum of natural history, Chicago

Abstract

Chinese Madonna from the collection of the field museum of natural history, Chicago, is a physical evidence demonstrating religious and artistic exchanges between China and the west. From the perspective of iconography and based on Dr. Berthold Laufer's early studies, this article intends to figure out the relationship between this painting and sains populi Romani in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, its original painter, creation time, and actual theme.