What happens when one culture attempts to represent another with very little knowledge of the other?! Well, only the most fascinating, yet potentially dangerous misrepresentations that are appreciated for all the unintended reasons! In this episode, I explain two sets of French tapestries created in the 18th century that present two very different pictures of the Qing empire and the complex narrative of global politics woven into them.
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For Further Reading:
Charissa Bremer-David, French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996)
Christopher M. S. Johns, China and the Church: Chinoiserie in Global Context (University of California Press, 2016)
Florian Knothe, ed., Imagining Qianlong: Louis XV’s Chinese Emperor Tapestries and Battle Scene Prints at the Imperial Court in Beijing (University of Hong Kong, 2017)
Kristel Smentek, “Chinoiseries for the Qing: A French Gift of Tapestries to the Qianlong Emperor,” Journal of Early Modern History, vol. 20, no. 1 (2016), pp. 87-109
Edith Standen, “The Story of the Emperor of China: A Beauvais Tapestry Series,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 11 (1976), pp. 103-117
Image Credit:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portraits of Oopjen Coppit and Marten Soolmans, 1634 / Rijksmuseum / Public Domain
The Unicorn Rests in Garden, from the Unicorn Tapestries, 1495-1606 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Sébastien Leclerc, Colbert Visiting the Gobelins, ca. 1635 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Tapestry Room from Croome Court, c. 1763-71 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Christ Is Born as Man’s Redeemer, from The Story of the Redemption of Man, South Netherlandish, 1500-1520 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Audience of the Emperor, from The Story of the Emperor of China, ca. 1687-1740, Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Emperor Sailing, from The Story of the Emperor of China, 1716/22, Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory / The Art Institute of Chicago / CC0 Public Domain
The Collation, The Pineapple Harvest, The Astronomers, The Empress’s Tea, The Return from the Hunt, The Emperor Traveling, and The Empress Sailing, from The Story of the Emperor of China, ca. 1695-1705, Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory / J. Paul Getty Museum / Public Domain
Illustrations from Johannes Nieuhof, Legatio Batavica ad Magnum Tartariae Chamum Sungeium, Modernum Sinae Imperatorem (Amsterdam, 1668) / Internet Archive / Digitized by University of California Libraries
Alexandre François Desportes, Still Life with Silver, ca. 1715-23 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Illustrations from Louis Le Comte, Nouveaux Mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine (Paris, 1696) / Internet Archive / Digitized by Getty Research Institute
Frontispiece for Athanasius Kircher, China Illustratrata (Amsterdam, 1667) / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
The Chinese Fair, from Tenture chinoise, 1743-45, Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory / Minneapolis Institute of Art / Public Domain
The Chinese Hunt, Jacques Gabriel Huquier after François Boucher, after 1743 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Chinese Dance, Jacques Gabriel Huquier after François Boucher, after 1743 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Chinese Garden, Jacques Gabriel Huquier after François Boucher, after 1743 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Audience of the Chinese Emperor, Jacques Gabriel Huquier after François Boucher, after 1743 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Chinese Fishing, Jacques Gabriel Huquier after François Boucher, after 1743 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Giuseppe Castiglione and others, Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor, 1736-ca. 1770s / Cleveland Museum of Art / Public Domain
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger, Louis XV, King of France, 1757 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
The Great Fear of the Period that Uncle Sam May Be Swallowed by Foreigners: The Problem Solved, between 1860 and 1869 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Front side of the view of the Hall of the Far Ocean, from Yuan Ming Yuan, engravings made after Yi Lantai (Beijing, 1783-86) / Getty Research Institute / Public Domain
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