The Forbidden City and Versailles have come together at the Beijing exhibition

XVII By the end of the 19th century, Europe was beginning to see China as more than the legendary land of Marco Polo. As luxury goods—especially porcelain—flowed to the West and scientific tools and ideas increased to the East, the two civilizations became slightly more familiar and enviable. This period of what might be called respectable greed ushered in a golden age of collecting, bought, commissioned or simply collected by the French court of Versailles, then the finest in Europe, and its Chinese counterpart, the imperial court of the Forbidden City in Beijing. the two worlds

Now, the remnants of those two collections are coming together for an exhibition at the Palace Museum in Beijing, revealing a surprising amount of cross-currents and stylistic overlaps, and a unifying love of bling. It roughly covers the century before the French Revolution of 1789, which coincided with the peak of power of China’s Qing Dynasty (1636-1912). The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: Exchanges between China and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. He uses around 150 objects and works of art to conjure the two centers of prosperity.

The new Chinese exhibition, which will be installed in the Forbidden City’s 19th Century Hall of Literature, is a follow-up to the 2014 Versailles show. China at Versailles: Art and Diplomacy in the 18th Century, which included only works from French collections. Originally planned for 2020 and then delayed by the pandemic, the new show takes advantage of the decade-long gap by including recently acquired French works, such as a porcelain service commissioned for Louis XV but made in China. He wears the coat of arms of France, it is from about 1730.

Louis XV’s predecessor and most famous great-grandfather, Louis XIV, and the Sun King’s Chinese counterpart, the Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722), are the patrons of this spectacle. It was Louis XIV who inaugurated the connection of the Bourbon kings with China in 1685, when his group of emissaries of Jesuit mathematicians succeeded in winning the favor of Kangxi. The show compares to that of Versailles Portrait of Louis XIV surrounded by the Attributes of the Arts and Sciences (circa 1672), by Jean Garnier, Palace Museum undated Qing period portrait of Emperor Kangxi in Court robes.

The eternal respect of the French kings and queens for their Chinese brotherhoods is remembered in a fusion work —PLaque representing the Emperor of China, where Charles-Eloi Asselin, a painter from the Sèvres porcelain factory outside Paris, depicted Kangxi’s successor, the Qianlong Emperor, on hard-paste porcelain. Based on a drawing by an Italian Jesuit at the Chinese court, the portrait, circa 1776, is presented in a gilded wood frame decorated with Chinese motifs. He held such a high position in the court of Louis XVI that he entered the king’s private apartments at Versailles.

Fun fusions

This skillful combination of East and West can be seen in various objects. A 17th century black lacquer clock inlaid with copper plates, made in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It then made its way to China, where 19th-century restorers replaced the work’s original tortoiseshell marquetry with Chinese-style lacquer work. Marie-Laure de Rochebrun of Versailles – who is the curator of the show together with Guo Fuxiang of the Palace Museum – describes this combination as “very interesting and very funny”.

Today, France and China are still practicing their version of finesse diplomacy. The show was announced in the spring of 2023, during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China, which US and European critics described as “less than a love fest”. The New York Times.

The visit’s fusion of politics and culture could have further implications, says JP Singh, a professor of political economy at George Mason University in Virginia and the magazine’s founder. Arts and International Affairs. The show’s invocation of a shared tradition of luxury, Singh says, not only dramatizes the two countries’ cultural history, but also evokes China’s status as France’s leading exporter of everything from expensive clothes to perfume. “Luxury goods are also a kind of cultural product”, he added.

• The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: exchanges between China and France in the 17th and 18th centuries., Palace Museum, Beijing, April 1 to June 30