What is it about?
The apostolic missionary Giovanni Battista Sidoti travelled to Japan with Carlo Dolci’s "Madonna with the Thumb", under severe circumstances the Tokugawa Shogunate strictly prohibited Christianity. The Shogun’s adviser and a Confucian Arai Hakuseki interrogated Sidoti. Through dialogues during the interrogations, Hakuseki and Sidoti established a mutual understanding and respect beyond political and religious differences. As a statesman, Hakuseki had to punish Sidoti for violating the ban on Christianity, but as a Confucian, who valued familial bonds as an important virtue, Hakuseki perceived the Madonna painting as a beautiful portrait of a mother rather than as an image of worship of a prohibited faith. The well-preserved condition of the painting attests to how preciously it was treated under Hakuseki’s command, even after Sidoti’s death in prison.
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Photo by Dong Cheng on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Sidoti and Hakuseki relationship give us a tip in order that human beings establish mutual understandings and respects beyond religious and political conflicts through intellectual dialogues as well as by shearing aesthetic values.
Perspectives
It was my great pleasure and honor to join the project of “Palimpsests of Religious Encounter in Asia, 1500–1800”. The project also gave a new perspective for my research on oil paintings on copper plate in the pre-modern Europe.
Professor Dr. Kayo Hirakawa
Kyoto University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Carlo Dolci’s Madonna with the Thumb: A Dialogue between Giovanni Battista Sidoti and Arai Hakuseki, May 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004522756_009.
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