The document summarizes the history of the Jesuit order and some of its key figures such as Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier who helped establish and spread the order. It then focuses on the Jesuit missionary Nicolas Point who in the 1840s accompanied Pierre-Jean de Smet west and created drawings documenting Native American life, becoming an important visual record of cultures like the Flatheads and Coeur d'Alenes. The document includes several of Point's illustrations.

2. Module 4
Art Informs
About Faraway
or Unknown
Places

3. Peter Paul Rubens. Saint Ignatius of Loyola. c.
1620-22. Oil on canvas. 88 x 54.5 in. Norton Simon
Museum, Pasadena, CA
JESUIT VISIONARIES
The Jesuit Order was founded by Ignatius of
Loyola who was born on c. October 23, 1491 – July
31, 1556) .
Ignatius of Loyola was the son of a minor Basque
noble family. He was also a soldier. During the
Battle of Pamplona, he was injured and sent back
home to Loyola.
During his lengthy recovery, Ignatius read the only
books on hand They were works on the lives of
Jesus and the saints. It was during this time that
Ignatius discerned to become a “soldier of Christ”
and live in imitation of the saints.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1620-22. Oil on canvas.
88 x 54-1/2 in.

4. The Beginnings
The Jesuit order was founded by Ignatius of Loyola
(c. October 23, 1491 – July 31, 1556), and was dedicated
to serving the Pope wherever and whenever needed.
By 1534 Loyola had gathered six key companions, whom
he had met as fellow students at the University of Paris.
Francis Xavier (1506 – 1556) was one of them.
Saint Francis Borgia, a member of the House of Borgia,
that was the main aide of Emperor Charles V, joined later
along with other nobles. He was a great-grandson of
Pope Alexander VI, a Grandee of Spain, a Spanish Jesuit,
and third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He
was canonized on 20 June 1670 by Pope Clement X.
Saint Francis de Borja.
S.J. Duke of Gandía

5. Loyola founded the Society of Jesus at a
time of excitement generated by the
opening of new worlds for mission work,
in a new age in which travel and
exploration was omnipresent.
Loyola’s past skills and experience as a
soldier proved instrumental in advancing
the Pope’s agenda. As a result on
September 27, 1540 Pope Paul III issued a
papal bull that established The Society of
Jesus.
In 1541 Loyola’s colleagues elected him
the first Superior General, a title in use to
this day. Loyola established simple rules
for the order to allow its members the
freedom to move fast wherever and
whenever they are needed.
Pope Paul III (1468-1549) Receiving
the Rule of the Society of Jesus,
1540 (engraving), Malloy, C. (16th
century) / Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris, France / Bridgeman Images.

6. Obedience to the pope was central to the jesuit
order. At the time of Loyola’s death, the order had
about 1000 members. They were organized by
territories he called Provinces.
Most of the Provinces were in Europe, but there
was also one in Latin America and one in India for
the purpose of conversion.
Francis Xavier’s ten years spent in the east, earned
him the title 'apostle of the Indies‘, and the naming
by the Vatican (1927) as the patron saint of all
missions.
In 1542 Xavier started working in the Indies, and
continued until 1549, when with a Japanese
interested in Christianity and two other Jesuits,
embarked on a long journey to Japan.
A painting of Saint Francis
Xavier, held in the Kobe City
Museum, Japan

7. Saint Francis Xavier arriving in
Japan in 1549. the Jesuit
Mission he established
flourished for 100 years.
Xavier spent two years in Japan (1549-1551)
where he laid the foundation for the following
one hundred years in which 300,000 Japanese
that embraced Christianity.
Xavier’s arrival in Japan marks the furthest
point yet reached by Europeans in the 16th-
century in the far east.
Xavier left Japan in 1551 and traveled to the
southern shores of China where he died in
1552 while trying to gain access to the Ming
Dynasty.
His successors, the most famous being the
Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610),
eventually succeeded in fulfilling Xavier's
dream during the late Ming and early Qing
Dynasties.

8. Matteo Ricci S.J. Was born in Italy and died in
China where he lived and worked for 27 years.
His books, Geometrica Practica and
Trigonometrica which were translations of
Christopher Clavius' works into Chinese, made
the Western developments in mathematics
available to them.
In 1584 and 1600 he published the first maps of
China ever available to the West.
Ricci's success was due to his ability to
embrace Chinese customs. He was a pioneer of
cultural relations between China and the West.

9. Athanasius Kircher,
S.J. (1602 – 1680), a
German Jesuit
Scholar, is well known
for his book known by
the short title of China
Illustrata.
The book is a
compilation of
information on
religious and non-
religious topics on
China, accompanied
by numerous
illustrations for
which.
Athanasius Kircher (1602-
1680). Digital Library, Villanova
University.

10. Kircher never travelled to
China but because he was
based at the Jesuit College in
Rome, he was in constant
contact with missionaries who
traveled and lived there.
He insisted on the accuracy of
the images, which were meant
to represent remote lands.
Kircher wrote the book in
Latin to reach a wide
audience. A Small Gate on the Wall of China, By Which its
Structure is Shown. Tartar Gate and the Yellow
River.

11. The Palomie Tree. Janssonius van
Waesberg. Amsterdam, 1667.
Athanasius Kircher, China Illustrata
The most important and interesting
feature of Kircher's book are the
numerous illustrations of nature,
portraits of emperors and Jesuits, and
maps of China. The Jesuits had very
good training in map making.
The illustrations of plants and animals
in the book are based on descriptions
contained in reports Jesuit
missionaries sent to the administrative
offices in Rome, and not on direct
observations.
Illustrations play an important role in
most of Kircher's works.

12. China Illustrata contains a number of
realistic depictions of Chinese plants
and animals, but also imaginary
depictions, such as the "Dragon and
Tiger mountain" (China Illustrata,
p. 171).
Most illustrations of plants and animals
are based on Michel Boym's book Flora
Sinensis. A small number of images
are derived from Chinese originals
Although Kircher himself did not create
most of the images, he chose them in
order to illustrate the descriptions
found in the text.
Man Preparing to Attack a Cobra is an
example of such an illustration.
Janssonius van Waesberg. Amsterdam,
1667. Man Preparing to Attack a Cobra.
China Illustrata, p.81. Athanasius
Kircher, China Illustrata

13. Athanasius Kircher, Johann
Adam Shall von Bell from China
Illustrata,1667. Amsterdam,
Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591-
1666), was a missionary and astronomer.
He was the predecessor of Ferdinand
Verbiest, astronomer at court of Ming
Dynasty in Nanjing. In this image from
Kircher’s book, he is depicted wearing a
Mandarin costume.
Schall was an important adviser to the first
emperor of the Qing dynasty (1644–
1911/12). He was trained in Rome and his
knowledge earned the trust of the emperor,
who appointed him head of the Imperial
Board of Astronomy.
With permission from the emperor, Schall
built a church in Beijing.

14. NICOLAS POINT
Was born on April 10, 1799 in Rocroi,
Ardennes, France. He died on July
3, 1868 in Quebec.
He was a Jesuit priest and missionary
with a notable artistic talent. His
lifelong dream was to work among the
Native Americans.
He entered the Society of Jesus in
1819, but left the novitiate for few
years. He returned in 1826 and was
ordained to the priesthood in 1831.
In 1841 he received an assignment, to
accompany DeSmet and four other
Jesuits to the northwestern United
States.
Nicolas Point. Sacred Heart Mission
among the Coeur d'Alenes. (IX C9 003 -
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis (2010-1003).

15. They joined the first Oregon Trail
Caravan in April 1841.
In August they arrived at Fort Hall on
the Snake River, where an advance
guard of Flatheads met the caravan
and escorted the missionaries to the
tribe’s territory in the Bitterroot Valley.
Point spent the first year among the
Flatheads and from 1842 to 1846
among the Coeur d’Alenes, for whom
he set up the Mission of the Sacred
Heart. During this period he kept a
journal and made hundreds of
drawings in ink, graphite, and
watercolors. De Smet used many of
Nicholas Point drawings as
illustrations in his books.
Nicolas Point. Father, Mother, and
Daughter on the Hunt. ca 1841-47. Ink on
paper. 4.25 x 6.5 inches. IX C9 106 -
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis.

16. Eager to better understand the
dynamic of Native American buffalo
culture, he joined hunting
expeditions which he captured in
drawings with very dynamic
compositions.
In his sketches Point depicted
scenes from the tribe’s everyday life,
including ceremonies and rituals he
found fascinating.
Women dried and stored meat, and
tanned hides for robes, clothing, and
lodge covers. Men’s hunting skills
satisfied immediate hunger, women’s
skills brought the people through
the long months after the hunt.
Nicolas Point. Women’s Work after the
Hunt. ca 1841-47. Ink on paper. 4.25.x 6.5
inches. IX C9 094 - DeSmetiana Collection,
Jesuit Missouri Province Archives, St.
Louis.

17. Women took pride in their ability to
manage, move, and set up camp. It
took a woman about fifteen minutes to
erect her family’s lodge after a day’s
journey. Women maintained
considerable authority in camp, and
their skills were respected.
Point’s drawings are an invaluable
visual record of everyday life and
culture of the Flatheads, Coeur d’Alene,
and Blackfeet between 1841 and 1846
and a bridge across a cultural divide.
Women were excellent riders, and they
accompanied men on the hunt to
butcher the animals and dry the meat
for storage.
Nicolas Point. Evening Camp. ca 1841-
47. Ink on paper. 4,24 x 6.75 inces. IX C9
092 - DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit
Missouri Province Archives, St. Louis.

18. Nicolas Point. Altar in a Tipi. 1841-1847.
Watercolor on paper . 4 x 6.5 inches. IX C9 035 -
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis
The watercolor of a Catholic
altar in an Native American tule
mat lodge, the traditional
housing of the Plateau Native
American people, eloquently
expresses the hopes of the
missionary artist Nicolas Point
for the conversion of the
Northwest tribes.
At the same time, it evokes the
possibility of a merging of
Christianity with Salish Beliefs.

19. He drew many portraits, and also used drawing
to communicate religious concepts.
Both a preliminary sketch and a finished portrait
of Insula survived. Known as Red Feather and
the Little Chief, Insula was given the baptismal
name Michel after the archangel of war.
A highly regarded Flathead leader, Insula was
brave, loyal, and trustworthy. He embodied the
virtues of his people that so impressed the
Jesuits.
He met DeSmet at the Rocky Mountain
Rendezvous in 1840.
Nicolas Point. Insula or Red
Feather. Michel, great chief and
brave among the Flathead
(Salish). Graphite on paper. ca.
1841-1842. 7.25 x 4.75 in.

20. The Blessing of
the Arms depicts
Salish warriors
leaving for the
winter buffalo
hunt ask for the
protection of St.
Michael, St.
Raphael, and St.
Hubert.
Point said the
Salish chose
these three saints
as their patrons
because they
aided warriors,
travelers, and
hunters.
In Blessing the
Arms before
Leaving for Hunt,
Salish hunters
are blessed by St.
Hubert, the
catholic patron of
hunters whose
symbol is a stag
with a cross
between its
antlers.
Nicolas Point. Blessing the Arms before
Leaving for Hunt. 1844. Watercolor on
paper. 4.75 x 6.75 inches. (IX C9 082 -
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis). 2010-1091

21. Nicolas Point . The Battle on the Plains with
Blackfeet. ca 1841-46. Graphite on paper. 4.25 x
7 inches. (IX C9 061- DeSmetiana Collection,
Jesuit Missouri Province Archives, St. Louis)
Just as they relied on the war
medicine to help them in battle,
Salish converts believed in the
powers of Jesus and Mary to
protect them against their
enemies. Here, prayers to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary were
answered by a Salish victory
over the Blackfeet.

22. Nicolas Point, S.J.
Worshiping False Idols. Ink on paper. 1842-1846
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri Province
Archives, St. Louis
The Native Anericans were
eager learn about
Christianity but they were
not ready to renounce
their rituals, and beliefs
despite the Jesuits’
efforts.
In their attempt to
eliminate the competition
of medicine men, the
Jesuits worked hard at
discrediting them by
saying that they were evil.
Many Indians listened to
the priests and threw away
their bundles and
medicine bags.

23. Nicolas Point, S.J. The Vision of Ettiene. ca. 1841-
47. 4.25 x 7 inches.
IX C9 021 - DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis.
Young boys were
encouraged to enter into a
period of fasting, meditation
and physical challenge by
separating themselves from
the tribe and going to a
wilderness area.
The goal was to receive a
vision that would guide their
development for the rest of
their life. At the same time
they would acquire a
guardian spirit for their
lifetime.
Girls were not usually
eligible for such a quest.

24. PIERRE-JEAN DE SMET
Pierre-Jean De Smet was born in Termonde,
Belgium, on January 30, 1801. He emigrated to
America in 1821.
Shortly after his arrival he entered the Jesuit
order in Baltimore, Maryland. He was ordained to
the priesthood in 1823 and was assigned to Saint
Louis University where he taught until 1833 when
he returned to Europe.
In 1837 he made the decision to become a
missionary on the American Frontier.
Between 1838 and 1842 De Smet traveled on the
frontier and encountered many Native American
tribes and worked relentlessly to cross the
divide.
Linton Album Page.
Photograph of De Smet and
numbers of miles traveled
yearly from 1821 to 1870
Jesuit Missouri Province
Archives, St. Louis

25. One year later, in 1838 he was assigned to
the Potowatomi tribe in Iowa. In 1840 during
a trip with a group of mountain men he
encountered the Flathead tribes before
arriving at Fort Union at Yellowstone. After
another trip to the Rocky Mountains, where
he spent two months with the Flatheads, he
decided to return to St Louis and with a
group of Black Robes, the name the Native-
American tribes ascribed to the Jesuits.
The group of six included De Smet, two
Jesuit priests, and three lay brothers.
Nicolas Point was part of the group. They
departed St. Louis by boat on April 24,
1841, and with the help of the mountain
men, they arrived at Fort Hall.
Linton Album Page (086a); insert
painting of The Steamboat Ontario
passing a herd of buffalo on the
craggy shore.
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit
Missouri Province Archives, St.
Louis.

26. Before returning to St. Louis he
established the St. Mary Mission in
the Bitterroot Valley.
In October 1842 De Smet returned
to St. Louis and shortly thereafter,
he traveled to Europe for
recruitment and fundraising.
The American Frontier was a
dynamic place and DeSmet was a
very active participant. Known as
Black Robe, he carried his crucifix
and his love for the Native
American tribes, working
relentlessly to cross the divide.
Photograph of painting by Emile Herzinger
depicting "Father DeSmet among the Sioux
Indians"

27. Pierre-Jean DeSmet. Sacred Heart Mission
among the Coeur d'Alenes. ca. 1859 -60
Sepia ink on paper. 11.25 x 21 inches. (IX C9
002 DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis)
This bird’s eye view of the Sacred
Heart mission to the Coeur
d’Alene drawn by De Smet on his
1859 Journey to the Nortwest
lacks perspective but provides
considerable detail.
An Annotated key of thirty-three
reference points locates mission
buildings, Indian lodges, mission
fields and pastures, and Coeur
d’Alene River.

28. In 1845 he successfully negotiated
a peace between the Blackfeet and
the Flathead tribes.
De Smet’s reputation among the
Potawatomis, Flatheads, Coeur
d’Alenes, Kalispels, Blackfeet, and
Yankton Sioux, who regarded him
as a man of peace and as their
friend, prompted the government
to turn to him for assistance. In
this capacity he was instrumental
in assisting the government in
peace negotiations with the Sioux
that resulted in the well known
peace treaty of Fort Laramie, in
1868.
Linton Album Page (139a); painting depicting
DeSmet Meeting Hostile Indian Bands by M.
Hastings.
DeSmetiana Collection, Jesuit Missouri Province
Archives, St. Louis

29. Painting depicting DeSmet on
His Way to the War Indians, by
M. Hastings; DeSmetiana
Collection, Jesuit Missouri
Province Archives, St. Louis
Pierre-Jean De Smet died on
May 23, 1873 in St. Louis.
It is estimated that he crossed
the Atlantic 19 times and
traveled 180,000 miles during
his lifetime.

30. PHOTOGRAPHY
Influenced by painting since its early days,
the new medium of photography included
borrowed genres such as landscape,
portraiture, and still life. Soon travel and
documentary photography were added.
They witnessed instant success due in
large part to the perception that they were
objective representations of far-flung exotic
places and people.
Giacomo Brogi
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, principal
door Library of Congress

31. Giacomo Brogi
Gerusalemme: Facciata del S.
Sepolcro. Albumen silver print .
Double image made for
stereoscope.
A stereoscope
is a device for
viewing a pair
of separate
images,
depicting left-
eye and right-
eye views of
the same
scene, as a
single three-
dimensional
image.
stereoscope

32. In 1832 Sir Charles Wheatstone
invented the stereoscope, a
device that enabled each eye to
view each image separately thus
creating the three dimensional
effect. The stereoscope remained
popular to this day.
Popular stereoscope toy of the mid
1900’s and one of today’s novelty
toys, the View Master 3D.

33. In Europe, Peter Bergheim, Felix
Bonfils, Francis Frith, Frank Mason
Good, Jean Pascal Sebah, and
Giacomo Brogi capitalized on the
public’s thirst for images of Egypt
and the Holy Lands.
In the 1850s, Francis Frith wrote an
essay on the aesthetics of this new
medium titled The Art of
Photography, which was published
in the Art Journal.
In it he acknowledged the subjective
nature of photographic images.
Peter Bergheim, Dome of the Chain - Dome
of the Rock, 1860 -1880. Albumen print.

34. Francis Frith, Hebron and the Plain
of Mamre, with Mosque Covering the
Cave of Machpelah, about 1865
Albumen silver print, 6 × 8 1/16 in.
Francis Frith was one of the most
successful commercial photographers
from the 1850s and 1860s.
He established the largest photographic
printing business in England. His
photographs were highly desirable
throughout the 1850s and 1860s.
Nearly all of the works bearing the F. Frith
and Co. stamp were not taken by Frith
himself, but by his travelling employees
who were photographing places in Holy
Land, Egypt, Europe, and Japan. Frith also
bought negative stocks of established
photographers.

35. Francis Frith, Arch over the Great Ravine – Petra,
1850s - 1870s, Whole-plate albumen print from
wet collodion glass negative
Frith's growing business
coincided with many
technological developments
taking place within the field of
photography.
These developments paved
the way to commercial mass
production work of the latter
half of the 19th century.
He documented historic and
biblical landmarks in an area
referred to as the Holy Land.
Frith became very successful
selling his photographically
illustrated books.

36. Félix Bonfils, Jardin de Gethsemani, 1870-1879.
Albumen print. 8 7/8 x 11 1/4 in.
Félix Bonfils (1831-1885) was
a French photographer and
writer who was active in the
Middle East.
In 1860 Bonfils joined
General d'Hautpoul's
expedition to the Levant.
Soon after returning from
Lebanon he became a
photographer.
He moved with his family to
Beirut in 1867 where they
opened a photographic
studio called "Maison
Bonfils".

37. Felix Bonfils, Réservoir d'Ezéchias (The Pool of
Hezekiah), albumen print.
In four years Bonfils he
made about 15,000 prints of
Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and
Greece, and 9,000
stereoscopic views.
The negatives were made
on glass plates, coated with
a collodion solution
sensitized with silver
nitrate. The plates had to be
prepared on the spot-
usually in a tent in the
Middle East. Then they were
exposed and developed
immediately . Prints could
be made later.

38. Felix Bonfils, Tomb of Absalom/Pillar of
Absalom (Palestine),
albumen print, 11 x 14 ininches.
Paper impregnated with a silver salt
solution was stretched against the glass
plate in a frame, and then exposed out of
doors under direct sunlight.
The photographers used egg white, or
albumen, as a binding agent on the paper.

39. Birthplace of Jesus, the Church of
the Nativity is situated about 6
miles south of Jerusalem on the
site identified by Christian tradition
as the birthplace of Jesus since
the 2nd century.
A church was first completed there
in ad 339 and the edifice that
replaced it after a fire in the 6th
century retains elaborate floor
mosaics from the original building.
The site also includes Latin, Greek
Orthodox, Franciscan and
Armenian convents and churches,
as well as bell towers, terraced
gardens and a pilgrimage route.
Felix Bonfils, Church of the Nativity,
Bethlehem, Palestine Circa 1870 – 1880,
Albumen Prints

40. THE AMERICAN WEST
The nineteenth-century West was an
intersection of cultures. .In the summer of 1833,
Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893)
accompanied Prince Maximilian, a German
anthropologist, 500 miles up the Missouri
River.
Maximilian was gathering material for a series
of volumes on North America and brought
Bodmer along to provide the illustrations.
Bodmer's paintings are important for their
ethnological significance.
Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893),
Mató-Tópe (Four Bears), Mandan Chief , 1834
watercolor on paper, 13¾ x 11¼ inches, 41.9 x
29.53 cm. Joslyn Art Museum. Gift of Enron Art
Foundation,, 1986.49.383

41. Recording life among the indigenous
populations of the Missouri River
Basin and the northern Great Plains,
Bodmer captured enduring likenesses
of a native people facing radical
cultural change through contact with
an ever-advancing Euro-American
civilization.
Karl Bodmer. Funeral Scaffold of a Sioux
Chief near Fort Pierre. hand-colored
aquatint, 1839. Mona Museum of
Nebraska.

42. Karl Bodmer. Mato-Tope, Adorned
with the insignia of his Warlike
Deeds In this portrait of Mandan
Chief. 1833-1834. Watercolor on
paper. 13.75”x11.25”. Joslyn Art
Museum. Omaha, Nebraska.
Bodmer showed Mato-Tope in this artwork
as he might appear ready for combat, with
the symbols of his past accomplishments in
battle painted on his body.
The six colored wooden sticks he wears in
his hair represent wounds received in battle
The large turkey feather represents an
injury Mato-Tope received from an arrow.
The stripes on his right arm commemorate
additional feats of war, and the large hand
painted on his chest indicates that he had
captured prisoners.
Mato-tope was the second chief of the
Mandans. He lived in the first half of the
nineteenth century on the upper Missouri
River in what is now North Dakota.

43. Among his people Mato-tope was a
brave warrior. He died on July 30th,
1837 after suffering from Small Pox,
brought to his tribe by whites.
Before his own death he lost his wife
and children to the disease and in his
last speech to the Arikaras and
Mandans (two closely related tribes) he
denounced the white man he had
previously treated as a brother for
bringing the disease to his people.
Small Pox wiped out more than eighty
percent of the Mandan population in
only a few months. The Mandans were
not the only tribe to suffer from the
disease.
Catlin, George. Archery of the
Mandans. Caitlin’s North American
Indian Portfolio. 1844.