Imperial illusions : crossing pictorial boundaries in the Qing palaces / Kristina Kleutghen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kleutghen, Kristina, 1981- author.

Series:

Art history publication initiative.

Art history publication initiative

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Qianlong, Emperor of China, 1711-1799--Art patronage.

Qianlong.

Gu gong bo wu yuan (China).

Painting, Chinese--China--Beijing--Ming-Qing dynasties, 1368-1912.

Painting, Chinese.

Art and society--China--History--18th century.

Art and society.

Trompe l'oeil painting--China--Beijing.

Trompe l'oeil painting.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (384 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle, [Washington] ; London, [England] : University of Washington Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the Forbidden City and other palaces around Beijing, Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) surrounded himself with monumental paintings of architecture, gardens, people, and faraway places. The best artists of the imperial painting academy, including a number of European missionary painters, used Western perspectival illusionism to transform walls and ceilings with visually striking images that were also deeply meaningful to Qianlong. These unprecedented works not only offer new insights into late imperial China's most influential emperor, but also reflect one way in which Chinese art integrated and domesticated foreign ideas. In Imperial Illusions, Kristina Kleutghen examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of "scenic illusion paintings" (tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City. Produced at the height of early modern cultural exchange between China and Europe, these works have received little scholarly attention. Richly illustrated, Imperial Illusions offers the first comprehensive investigation of the aesthetic, cultural, perceptual, and political importance of these illusionistic paintings essential to Qianlong's world. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/imperial-illusions

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Note to Readers; Chronology of Chinese Dynasties and Political Periods; Introduction: A New Vision of Painting; One. Painted Walls and Pictorial Illusions; Two. The Study of Vision; Three. Contemplating the Future; Four. Peacocks and Cave- Heavens; Five. Staging Europe; Six. The Beauty in the Garden; Epilogue: Illusions, Imperial and Otherwise; Appendix: Chinese Texts; Notes; Glossary of Chinese Characters; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780295805528

0295805528

OCLC:

910935529