FEATURES ARCHIVE

Art Under Imperial Patronage
The 17th and 18th centuries can be described as a golden age in both craftsmanship and cultural patronage in China. In particular it was the collective impetus of the ‘three great Qing Emperors’—Kangxi (1662–1722), Yongzheng (1723–1735) and Qianlong (1735–1796)—whose personal taste and deep interest in collecting accounted for a sustained period of innovation in the production of exquisite wares for the Imperial court. At the heart of this flourishing enterprise lay the Imperial workshops, established by Emperor Kangxi, many of which were cited within the palace complex itself at Beijing. Here, under the attentive and exacting eye of the Emperor himself, makers and masters created highly refined pieces in the most prized and, at times, ground-breaking materials of the day. Studios specialising in painting, jade and ivory carving, furniture and lacquer wares were joined by expert workshops in the production of clocks as well as the Forbidden City’s own glassworks.

Following a period of sustained technical innovation under the Kangxi emperor that vastly expanded the palette of colours available to potters, the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns were characterised by a period of experimentation pushing the existing boundaries of ceramics as an art form. The Yongzheng period porcelain pail exquisitely enamelled to simulate wood is among the finest trompe l’oeil pieces created within the period. Both the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors were fascinated by the artists who were successfully able to imitate a variety of materials in porcelain ranging from lacquer to stone.

The innovations that spanned this fertile period find their balance in the three great Emperors’ own deep appreciation and understanding of the past. Renowned for their collections of exquisite antiques, the influence of these collections on taste and contemporary Imperial commissions cannot be underestimated. It was not uncommon, for example, for the underlying form of an object to be based on an antique model and the decorative style to be new. Equally craftsmen paid homage to the antique by emulating designs; sometimes making a direct copy, at other times working from drawings. Potters often looked to the past for inspiration and in the Yongzheng dragon vase we see a Qing interpretation of a common early Ming pattern, an Imperial fiveclawed dragon reserved against a ground of paler blue and white waves but here the dragons are distinctly Qing. The elegant shape further re-enforces the early Ming influence, drawing inspiration from early Ming metalwork form.

Imperial furnishings dating to the Qianlong period are exemplified by this exquisitely carved Imperial zitan low table originally placed on a Kang bed, whose pair remains in the Palace Museum in Beijing, carved from highly prized purple sandalwood and was originally acquired by an American family based in Beijing in the early part of the 20th century. A magnificent automaton ‘jardiniere’ clock from the Canton workshops is also pictured. European clocks were presented as tributes to the Chinese emperors as early as the Wanli period (1573–1619). By the mid to late 18th century elaborate clocks with automata and musical boxes to rival those made in the West were produced in China. The Chinese clocks were made for the domestic market and incorporated motifs that would have appealed to the sensibilities of the Imperial Court.

Two richly gilt-bronze ritual bells crisply cast with intricately entwined dragons demonstrate the high level of workmanship of the Kangxi period. Bells of this type were known as bianzhong and were usually assembled in graduated sets of sixteen suspended in two tiers of eight attached to tall wooden frames, providing twelve musical tones achieved solely by varying the thickness of the sides. Bianzhong were essential in Confucian ritual ceremonies at the Imperial altars, formal banquets and during processions.