Page 172 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

Yuanmingyuan on Display 157

Figure 10.3 Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg, photograph of the Musée chinois, probably 1863.
View from the outer room toward the inner room, with two cloisonné
candelabra flanking the entrance and parts of the Buddha tapestries visible on
the ceiling. Photograph. Fontainebleau: Archives of the Musée National du
Château de Fontainebleau.

drawings offer only a guide, not a model, because each designer must create his/her
own designs informed by poetic feeling; each drawing must convey individual life;
and each work must be executed by hand, not by industrial molding or mechanical
reproduction. 36 This deeply thought philosophy impacted the Chinese Museum in
three ways. It created appreciation for Chinese decorative arts outside their original
function and meaning by focusing on the aesthetic effect of their rich ornamentation.
It enabled a means of bridging the Buddhist material culture patronized by Qing
emperors to the French royal rococo with which Eugénie identified, through the
mediation of ornament. And it focused that mediation in part on the use of floral
designs that could resonate in both cultures. As we will see in the following section,
Ruprich-Robert’s design philosophy and practice were crucial to resolving the
competing discourses surrounding the Yuanmingyuan collection and harmonizing the
remote yet related imperial contexts of Eugénie and the Qing emperors.

Design and Effect of the Display

A context does not explain a display any more than a discourse determines its mean -
ing. Like any art object, a display works its context and shapes discourse through