ABSTRACT
The series of portraits known as the Collezione Aulica, housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, includes a portrait of Kangxi, who reigned over China from 1661 to 1722. This Manchu emperor is often considered the first Chinese ruler who enjoyed widespread popularity among the European elites in the Early Modern period. Beyond Grimaldi’s diplomatic mission, the Jesuit Father’s meeting with Cosimo III and the epistolary exchanges with Russia deserve to be analyzed with more attention. In terms of authorship, the portrait of Kangxi in the Serie Aulica represents a valuable pictorial source when compared with the portrait attributed to Gherardini today in the Palace Museum in Beijing, a hanging scroll representing the emperor reading and surrounded by books. Indeed, in Florence the painting by Gherardini has been living a very peculiar life: its artist was not mentioned for more than two centuries, and its subject—emperor Kangxi—surfaced intermittently in the museum inventories.
