Forbidden City and Palace of Versailles their most remarkable treasures
Artefacts from the Forbidden City and Palace of Versailles
An extension of friendship and respect
In 1688, Louis XIV of France wrote a letter to the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty, in the Forbidden City, praising and exalting him. He affectionately signed the letter, “Your most Dear, and Good Friend, Louis.”
The letter was intended to introduce the French Jesuit envoy sent to China on its first diplomatic trip to Beijing in an extension of friendship and respect.
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Though this letter never reached its intended receiver, it marked a significant beginning to an intimate cultural, economic and scientific exchange that lasted hundreds of years between France and China when both countries were arguably at their peaks.
Palace Museum of Beijing and the Palace of Versailles
The exhibition, Forbidden City and Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, features a multimedia re-enactment of this letter from archives, and also brings together 150 historical artefacts including several new acquisitions.
This presentation is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Palace Museum of Beijing, and the Palace of Versailles.
It will be the first time these treasures are brought together in Hong Kong and celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of continued diplomatic relations between France and China.
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Many of these priceless historical treasures aptly tell a story of the influence and collaboration between the two countries.
2 cultures and 1 mutual fascination
Monsieur Laurent Salome, President of the Acquisitions Committee of the Palace of Versailles Museum, observed that the “Two cultures have felt a mutual fascination for each other over centuries and we see this beautiful story of curiosity and respect… and the complexities of it where the influences go both ways in the objects which are on display.”
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These sentiments can be felt deeply in the way that Chinese influences were encompassed in the Rococo art movement and literary masterpieces in France.
Delightful gifts for emperors in the Forbidden City
It can be seen in the gifts of scientific objects – atlases, clocks and calculators of the Enlightenment that were brought to the Qing Emperors from France.
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Finally, the fusion and even imitation of porcelain works of art drove the increased production and demand for Chinese porcelain objects and knowledge.
Chinese gifts sent to Louis XIV
Two years prior to the first French Jesuit priests landing in Beijing, a group of gifts were sent to Louis XIV, including an Ewer with Landscapes and Plants, a Qing dynasty piece of silverware with Chinese motifs of bamboo, plum blossoms and pagodas.
This was the only item from this group to survive two silver melting – the first ordered by the French to replenish their treasury and the second during the French Revolution.
The item’s appearance had tarnished to black, but it was eventually recognised as part of the royal collection by the coat of arms stamped on its base.
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The piece, recently acquired in 2018, is “precious to [us], and we are happy to exhibit [here] because it is a symbol of the beginning of the fashion and fascination for China”, as articulated by Madame De Rochebrune, General Heritage Curator of the Palace of Versailles.
Enlightenment shared with Forbidden City court
When the French Jesuit priests arrived in Beijing, under the instruction of Louis XIV, they shared the technological, mathematical and scientific advancements of the Enlightenment with the Qing court.
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These advancements came in the form of mechanical clocks, calculators, atlases and astronomy spheres, which were gifted to the Kangxi emperor and featured in this exhibition.
This knowledge became a source of fascination throughout the Qing court and even appears in the panels, Screens inlaid with painted enamel panels portraying western ladies where the clock motif appears four times, two large floor clocks, a mantel clock and a pocket watch.
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There is an interesting inaccuracy in the representation of Roman numerals painted on the floor clock featured on one of the panels which tells a story of curiosity about the subject matter, and the increasing proliferation of western ideas in eastern art.
The fascination with western sciences is shown through one of the most prized gifts, the Qing Emperor’s treasured Clock inlaid with black lacquer panels.
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This mechanical movement clock was passed down several Qing generations and was made by the royal clockmaker of France, Balthazar Martinot.
French Jesuits facilitated artistic knowledge to the west
Mr Guo Fuxiang of the Palace Museum notes how Emperor Qianlong’s workshop had carefully replaced the original tortoiseshell panels without any other changes to the clock’s mechanics, illustrating the care that went into repairing and maintaining the heirloom.
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While the Chinese gained scientific knowledge from the French, the French Jesuits facilitated the spread of artistic knowledge on porcelain to the west.
Not only did this create a new economic market for Chinese porcelain, but it also opened up the art form for additional collaborations and fusions.
In Bowl with flowers and Bowl with flowers and butterflies, many Chinese ceramic artisans in China began to adopt western pigments, colour palettes, and even oil painting techniques to differentiate their porcelain-making.
Credit Hong Kong Palace Museum
Bowl with flowers has a vibrant palette, colour mixing and gradation that stems from European enamel painting. Bowl with flowers and butterflies tells the story of European red-pink pigments that made their way into the ceramic-making canon of Jingdezhen.
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This new, exciting colour palette, termed famille rose, was embraced and popularised in the Qing court.
Chinese porcelain became highly coveted in the French courts, where pieces like Perfume fountain were featured in Louis XV’s private wardrobe, and French artists developed techniques to mount the ceramic with the flamboyant gilded brass in the French Rococo style, fusing eastern and western elements.
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The French soon built their own porcelain production capabilities and manufactories, first developing soft-paste porcelain, painting them in a western style to send back to the emperor to show a new artistic collaboration, as can be seen in Two painted vases with figures.
French mastered porcelain production
Then, when production matured and the French were able to master hard porcelain, Louis XV ordered a complete dinner and dessert service (nearly 1750 pieces) with a bright turquoise blue, also known as “celeste blue”, in homage to China, which was known to the French as the “celestial empire”.
And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the story is best seen through the exhibition’s Chrysanthemum pot. It is a special piece in the Palace Museum of Beijing’s collection.
Mr Gao Fuxiang tells us, “For many years we felt this piece was Chinese made, but a few years ago, we discovered a small red inscription that reads “Coteau” on the underside of the lid, which to our surprise, indicates that the item was commissioned by Qianlong and made in France.”
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The amount of detail in the flower motifs, gilded pot and mastery of Chinese processes and flavour tells a story of how French enamellers were able to utilise their understanding of Chinese arts to create new highly valued pieces that even Emperor Qianlong sought and retained in his collections.
The exhibition itself is a walk-through time, taking us through this place in history where a special relationship was forged between the Chinese and French through cultural, artistic and scientific exchange.
The letters written by the seventeen Jesuit priests were eventually compiled into a compendium of Chinese history by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde.
The result, Description of China, became a bestseller in France, a mark of pervasive Chinese influence across the country affecting everything from the philosophies of Voltaire, the fashions of Marie Antoinette and the political spheres of kings.
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The significance of the exchange between the two countries is that both high civilisations were mutually open and curious about each other in this era of prosperity.
In a time where encounters like these could have been highly charged or exploitive by nature, it instead tells of an extended, miraculous period of friendship evidenced through these national treasures and artefacts.
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Bringing these pieces together in and of itself must have been a highly collaborative effort across all three museums, and like the exhibition’s subject matter, it speaks deeply about the current cooperation between the two countries today.
Monsieur Salome expressed that while “France and China symbolise two very different, important, great old cultures, it is moving to see how these two countries see and like each other… [The exhibit] is something so spectacular, so moving, showing our connections rather than the differences.”
We highlight just a small subset of the full gallery of pieces shown in the exhibition, but some additional items that deserve mention include the porcelain portrait of the Qianlong Emperor by Giuseppe Panzi and others, as well as the famous Rigaud portrait of Louis XIV.
For history buffs and art appreciators alike, this exhibition is extensive and ambitious in scope, and its significance is not to be missed.
Text Anne Jiao / Photos Cammy Yiu
