Page 165 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

150 Greg M. Thomas

Figure 10.1 Modern photograph of the inner room of the Musée chinois, looking toward
the outer room. Visible are the central chandelier over a square incense burner,
the large wooden display cabinet to the right, one altar vase next to it, one
hexagonal incense burner in the corner, one altar candlestick at the entrance, and
two gold-ground lacquer panels on the walls. 2015. © Fontainebleau, Château.

display site and style, and the aesthetic interests of Ruprich-Robert. Building on this
context, the second section analyzes the display’s material and visual effects to
understand the meanings it gave to the Yuanmingyuan, Chinese art, Sino-French
relations, and Eugénie herself. While building on my previous writing about the looting
and the museum, here I explore new arguments: that the museum was intensely
personal; that the display created an effect of cultural dialogue, not domination;
that ornament played the central role in creating such dialogue; and that it did so
through particular materials, forms, and patterns linked to both royal art in France
2
and imperial art in China. Inherent within these arguments is a testing of the
imperialist paradigm. Following Edward Said and others developing his Orientalist
model, I acknowledge that the entire political and cultural framework through which
the Chinese Museum came into being was imperialist, from the unjustified invasion
of China to the ignorant hanging of sacred Buddhist tapestries on a French ceiling.
Yet I insist also on appreciating imperialism’s innate heterogeneity. To attribute every
French person’s action and art work to a monolithic aim of dominating China would
distort the messy complexity of reality. Art historical understanding is rooted precisely
in the diverse ways in which individual actors respond to dominant discourse, and
the diverse meanings created by individual works of art. Given the added complexities
of a display ensemble, nuance becomes all the more essential.