Imperial Illusions. Kristina Kleutghen
3 and 5 originally appeared, in significantly condensed and altered forms, respectively in Orientations 42, no. 4 (2011): 73–79 and in Studies in Eighteenth- Century Culture 42 (2012): 81–102. General discussions of scenic illusion paintings and their Chinese artists have also appeared as “Intended to Deceive: Sino-European Painting at the Eighteenth-Century Chinese Court,” in Beyond Boundaries: East and West Cross- Cultural Encounters, ed. Michelle Ying-ling Huang (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2011) and in Chinese as “Tongjinghua yu Lang Shining yichan,” Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 161, no. 5 (2012): 77–88.
CHRONOLOGY OF CHINESE DYNASTIES AND POLITICAL PERIODS
Xia dynasty, c. 2100–1600 BCE
Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1100 BCE
Zhou dynasty
Western Zhou, c. 1100–771 BCE
Eastern Zhou, 770–256 BCE
Spring and Autumn period,
770–476 BCE
Warring States period, 476–221 BCE
Qin dynasty, 221–206 BCE
Han dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CE
Three Kingdoms, 220–265
Six Dynasties
Western Jin, 265–317
Eastern Jin, 317–420
Southern and Northern dynasties
420–589
Sui dynasty, 581–618
Tang dynasty, 618–907
Five Dynasties/Ten Kingdoms, 907–960
Song dynasty
Northern Song, 960–1127
Southern Song, 1127–1279
Jin dynasty, 1115–1234
Yuan dynasty, 1271–1368
Ming dynasty, 1368–1644
Qing dynasty, 1644–1911
Republic, 1912–49
People’s Republic, 1949–present
IMPERIAL ILLUSIONS
I.1View inside Hall of Mental Cultivation toward west wall of building. Palace Museum, Beijing.
From Nie Chongzheng, “Zai tan Lang Shining de ‘Ping’an chunxin tu’ zhou,” Zijincheng 162 (July 2008):
168.
INTRODUCTION
A New Vision of Painting
INSIDE THE FORBIDDEN CITY ONE DAY, LATE IN HIS REIGN, THE QIANLONG emperor (r. 1736–95) might have left his office and throne room at the east end of the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxindian) and walked west down its main corridor toward the Three Rarities Studio (Sanxitang).1 Under Qianlong’s patronage, the arts flourished at the Chinese imperial court: the Three Rarities Studio, merely a tiny room at the westernmost end of the hall, was reserved for his enjoyment and connoisseurship of the vast imperial painting and calligraphy collection. Before stepping over the raised threshold into the antechamber preceding the studio, he likely paused at the sight before him. Perfectly framed by the doorway was a room with a distinctive floor of blue-and-white porcelain tiles and decoratively latticed windows that receded to a moon gate, which opened onto a secluded private garden occupied by two men (figure I.1). The older man was presenting a branch of blossoming plum to the younger man, and both were casually dressed in scholars’ robes rather than court costume. The scene was one of tranquility, leisure, and personal connection, a sharp contrast to the formality and the political responsibility of the east end of the hall.
Although initially this view appeared real, once the emperor stepped through the doorway its true nature would have been revealed as a special type of eighteenth-century court painting (figure I.2). Scenic illusion paintings (tongjinghua) are massive wall- and ceiling-mounted paintings in full color on silk, produced collaboratively by the best Chinese
I.2Anonymous (attributed to Giuseppe Castiglione and Jin Tingbiao), Spring’s Peaceful Message, mid-
eighteenth century. Scenic illusion affixed hanging, ink and color on silk, 201 × 207 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.
and Western painters serving the emperor.2 These artists blended their different styles and techniques to create monumental illusionistic paintings such as this one, known as Spring’s Peaceful Message (Ping’an chunxin tu or Meibao chunxin tu), that seemed at first glance to be real, permeable spaces contiguous with the viewer’s own space and occupied by real figures and objects.3
The Yongzheng emperor (r. 1723–35) commissioned the first scenic illusions in the late 1720s,4 and Qianlong continued this practice from 1736, his first official year on the throne, to 1798, when he commissioned his last scenic illusion just over a year before his death.5 The palace workshop archives demonstrate that originally dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of these paintings were installed inside imperial spaces in and around
eighteenth-century Beijing. Today only a handful of those that Qianlong commissioned remain to testify to the scenic illusion phenomenon at the Qing court. More may come to light in the future, but for now, only five single paintings and one complete interior program remain in situ; four paintings survive outside their original architectural contexts; and there is visual evidence for three works that have not survived. Now held almost exclusively inside restricted areas of the Palace Museum, three of the extant single scenic illusions were briefly displayed internationally,6 but upon their return to Beijing became just as inaccessible as before. The unwieldiness and fragility of these massive paintings severely complicate their handling, photography, and display, consequently circumscribing even scholarly access, and there have been correspondingly few publications.7 In spite of their current rarity and their historical, historiographical, and institutional invisibility, scenic illusion paintings offer new insights into late imperial China’s most influential emperor. More importantly, however, they also provide a new perspective on how Chinese art integrated or rejected foreign concepts during the height of early modern Sino-European exchange.
Approaching Scenic Illusion Paintings
“Scenic illusion painting” is a connotative translation of tongjinghua, the functionally elegant Chinese term that describes the viewer’s experience of these paintings: the term literally means “to connect, cross into, or move through” (tong) “scenes” (jing) that are “painted” (hua). Although this was the most common term, many others were used and could even designate the same painting over the course of its production, including “deep-distance paintings” (shenyuanhua), “perspectival paintings” (xianfahua, literally “line-method paintings”), “scenic illusion perspectival paintings” (tongjing xianfahua), and “scenic illusion oil paintings” (tongjing youhua). Translating tongjinghua both into English and into concise, modern art-historical terminology