Page 175 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

160 Greg M. Thomas
Fourdinois (1830–1907), an esteemed cabinet maker specializing in replicating ancien
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régime styles. While his oeuvre shows no interest in non-Western art, here he mixed
European and Chinese forms and techniques. To display precious items in the main
salon, he made an ebony and ormolu vitrine reminiscent of Louis XIV and XV (see
Figure 9.3). In the inner room, by contrast, he made three corner shelves imitating
the irregularly sized Chinese shelving common in displaying decorative arts (see
Figures 9.4 and 10.1). These were designed by Ruprich-Robert, who also provided
drawings for Fourdinois’s two heavy wooden pedestals supporting the hexagonal
incense burner and the stupa. 45 Made with Chinese forms and joinery, both have
curving, lobed contours mimicking those of the incense burner itself. Both also have
carved floral scrollwork—Ruprich-Robert’s specialty—that follows the incense
burner’s patterns while appearing more rococo in the interlacing of vines, roundness
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of relief, and indentation of the edges. Ruprich-Robert and Fourdinois literally mixed
styles, again harmonizing Chinese and ancien régime traditions.
With such a skilled cabinet maker available—someone Viollet-le-Duc deemed
unparalleled in Europe —it is telling that Ruprich-Robert designed the inner room’s
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grand central vitrine himself, along with two horizontal display cases between the
windows opposite the vitrine (see Figure 10.1). These were clearly intended to be not
just frames or supports but integral parts of the total installation. Like the lacquer
paneling, these cabinets were designed around Chinese originals, in this case wooden
panels (probably huali wood) purchased from Malinet that resemble Qing examples
from Shaanxi. 48 Used in domestic doors in finer village houses, such panels generally
depict treasures, plants and animals bringing good fortune, or stories from philosophy
or literature. All three cabinets reproduce the panels’ original position in the lower
half of multi-fold doors. The seven vertical panels of the grand vitrine (see Figure
10.1) and the three on the innermost small cabinet (visible to the right of Figure 9.4)
seem to come from a single source; all depict pairs of animals in landscapes, framed
by a low relief border. The three vertical panels of the small cabinet nearest the
entrance depict abstract cloud patterns, with no relief border. All 13 have matching
panels of decorative trim below and panels in the same style above, with two depicting
cloud patterns and the rest either flowers or complex landscapes with figures. Another
seven horizontal panels cap the grand vitrine, with eight smaller vertical panels
depicting figures running down the edges of the glass doors. 49
Ruprich-Robert’s designs give the three cabinets ideal dimensions to complement
the room and an overall appearance that balances European and Chinese traditions.
The cabinetry employs Chinese joinery and closely matches the inset originals in color
and grain, while the simple rectangular profiles, glass doors, and velvety lining are
typically European. Echoing the lacquer panels, these wooden ones show Chinese
pictorial art, a major omission from the officers’ initial selection. And ornamentalist
Ruprich-Robert refrained from further ornament, letting the wooden pictures stand
out in the museum’s busy visual landscape. Adding one more authentic touch to all
the woodwork were the Chinese latticework borders obtained from Malinet that frame
the main entrance and crown the grand vitrine (see Figures 10.1 and 10.3).
Far more flamboyant is the third display technique, the creation of the cloisonné
candelabra. These were almost certainly inspired directly by similar candelabra in
the Yellow Room at Buckingham Palace, made from meter-high porcelain vases. 50
Those at Fontainebleau were the most visually prominent elements of the display,
with the two altar candlesticks framing the entrance to the inner salon, the two altar