Page 173 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

158 Greg M. Thomas
visual effects and material experiences that affect people’s thoughts, beliefs, and values.
Evidence of the Chinese Museum’s reception is slight, but analyzing photographs
from the time and the restored display today, we can detail a number of key visual
and material features that interpret the Yuanmingyuan’s objects in specific ways 37
(see Figure 10.3). Three main ones analyzed here are the paneling of the inner room
in real and simulated Chinese lacquer; the manufacture of wooden display cabinets
using real and simulated Chinese wood; and the transformation of cloisonné vessels
into candelabra. All three techniques involve hybridized ornamental frames
manufactured by elite craftsmen to make Chinese and French forms, materials, and
patterns appear to be compatible and related. Together, they create a cross-cultural
unity of design that makes French and Chinese imperial culture appear to be
aesthetically—though not politically or religiously—equal in status and mutually
comprehensible.
The main decision securely attributed to Eugénie herself is the framing of the entire
space with Chinese lacquer panels mounted on the walls of the inner chamber, where
the great majority of Chinese objects were housed. No substantial lacquer ware was
sent from the Yuanmingyuan, so her inspiration clearly lay elsewhere. While Asian
lacquer enjoyed general popularity in eighteenth-century chinoiserie, the idea of using
lacquer on the walls was a more specific gesture of affinity with Marie-Antoinette,
an attempt to forge a cultural continuity with her through their common attitude to
Chinese art. Eugénie first requested lacquer panels previously owned by her, before
accepting instead two double-sided Chinese lacquer screens from storage. 38 And the
two techniques applied to the screen—splitting each panel into its two faces and setting
them within ebony frames—were also evident in the Marie-Antoinette furniture
Eugénie saw in Scotland in 1860.
It was probably Ruprich-Robert who arranged the detached sheets. Spread around
all four walls, against a shiny black surface, the panels were grouped into sections
of different widths. Half the panels have gold designs on a black background, and
they alternate with the others having black designs on gold (see Figure 10.1). If we
consider the narrowest panel to be a single unit (measuring about two feet by six
feet, plus its border), then sections appear to be sized in single units, double units,
triple units, and one five-unit section in gold on black positioned behind the stupa,
reinforcing its stage-like prominence along the room’s central axis. 39 (see Figure 9.4)
The resulting effect is a continuous horizontal band of lacquer sections in varying
widths alternating rhythmically between black and gold, with Chinese fabric originally
upholstering the walls above. 40 This is no mere ornamental background, but a
prominent, active participant in the display’s effect. Lacquer hovers behind the stupa
from any angle of vision, like stage scenery, and the Chinese panels are all pictorial,
full of landscapes combining typical Chinese designs and chinoiserie architectural
motifs.
Each lacquer section was also surrounded with an ebony border imitating lacquer
(see Figure 10.4). Provided by the merchant Meyer, 41 these are ornamented in scrolls
of leaves and tree peonies, which were favored in Chinese imperial gardens and
commonly symbolized wealth and honor. Interspersed among the flowers are
phoenixes—the chief symbol of Chinese empresses, representing good fortune and
immortality—rendered with their distinctive streaming tails in a manner typical
of chinoiserie. 42 Below each floral border is an extra horizontal band ornamented
with dragons, the master symbol of Chinese emperors, also representing immortality