Page 166 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

Yuanmingyuan on Display 151
Formation and context of the display
In my analysis of the looting process, I found the French officers who selected works
for Napoleon III and Eugénie consciously sought objects that carried the highest
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aesthetic and political prestige. General Montauban’s first choice was a pair of jade
and gold ruyi, which were believed to be scepters, though ruyi actually served as elite
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new year’s gifts heralding good fortune. His largest selection, a pair of massive bronze
lions guarding the emperor’s main audience hall, proved too large to transport and
was replaced by two leopard-sized gilt bronze dragons, the main symbol of China’s
emperors. A set of imperial armor and various weapons rounded out the political
symbolism. The largest objects actually sent were Buddhist, reflecting the Qing
emperors’ lavish investment in Tibetan Buddhism: a gilt bronze stupa from the
Xianfeng emperor’s (r. 1850–1861) private quarters, probably made originally for
the great Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795); a huge wugong set of five altar vessels
(one round tripod incense burner, two candlesticks, two vases) in cloisonné enamel,
identical to a set in Beijing’s Yonghegong temple, also made for Qianlong and
presumably taken from a temple; two or three other cloisonné braziers or incense
burners; and four similar kesi woven tapestries, each depicting the Buddha in three
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guises, also from a temple. Beyond these came over one hundred smaller objects,
mostly porcelain, along with vessels and sculptures in lacquer, jade, bronze, crystal,
and gold. These mirrored France’s own royal decorative arts in kind and function,
except in omitting any work of painting or calligraphy, the elite fine art counterparts
of Western painting and sculpture.
Once selected, this core collection began a journey of re-interpretation back in
Paris. From February to April 1861, it was publicly exhibited in the Tuileries,
Napoleon’s primary residence within the Louvre complex, which mirrored the
Forbidden City in Beijing. A print of this formal display in the March 2 edition of
the Monde illustré casts the imperial armor as the intended center of viewers’ attention,
placed on a mannequin and enshrined in the center of three bays, with the dragons,
ruyi, and two daggers at the mannequin’s feet, rifles to its sides, and a Buddha tapestry
behind (see Figure 9.1). The military symbolism is enhanced by European armor from
a private collection lining the opposite wall. Competing in importance are the religious
works, with the stupa occupying the center of the room and the altar set lined up to
either side. Least emphasized are the few dozen smaller objects arranged on shelves
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in the two bays flanking the mannequin. Eugénie’s display would be quite different.
A well-known full-page print signed Mariani in the April 13 edition of The Illus -
trated London News similarly emphasizes the exotic military and religious items,
showing the mannequin, guns, and ruyi and dagger in the center, a military saddle at
lower left before the stupa, and a bronze dragon at right before a square incense burner.
No porcelains are shown (see Figure 1.4). Already on March 9, however, the French
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weekly L’Illustration had published a less known but more detailed page of seven
vignettes by Jules Gaildrau, interspersed among the text of an unrelated theater review
(see Figure 10.2). Entitled “Trophée d’objets chinois,” with no explana tory text, they
show the same armored mannequin with downturned mustache in the center of the
page, but here looking quite alive, with his right hand on his hip. Above is an image
resembling the actual Tuileries display, including the mannequin, dragons, ruyi,
dagger, guns, and even the tapestry behind. Five others depict the ruyi and dagger;
the stupa; a square incense burner; the larger tripod burner; and one candlestick and