In this volume, William Watson and Chuimei Ho begin with discussions of “fine” art and painting and progress to an analysis of carving and sculpture, ceramics, glassware, and textiles. The authors demonstrate how, in the age of the Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the “decorative” arts rose to prominence in a way quite unlike the western experience. Avoiding misrepresentative categorization, they single out period styles, identify repeated phases of archaism and Buddhist art, and discuss characteristic groups of jade, ivory, ceramics, glassware, and textiles. They consider the importance of the imperial workshops and their role in developing craftsmen’s skills and encouraging the cross-over of techniques from different disciplines, and they direct attention to the compelling influence of Emperor Qianlong’s aesthetic innovations. In architecture, the vast plan and overwhelming authority of the imperial buildings is discussed in contrast with the restrained subtlety of domestic architecture and garden design, where magnificent rocks were the principal feature just as in landscape painting. The survey concludes by examining the development of East/West trade and the effects of commercialization on Chinese arts and crafts. This is a handsome, well-illustrated book that will be a valuable and illuminating resource for all who are interested in the arts of China.

The Arts of China After 1620 (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art)

Arts & Photography

Chuimei Ho

William, Watson

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

This sumptuous new book brings together some of the most priceless national treasures in China, housed in Beijing's royal palace complex, the Forbidden City, and collected by Emperor Qianlong. During his sixty-year reign, from 1736 to 1795, Qianlong not only managed what was then the richest empire in the world, but also amassed the largest collection of art known at that time in China. Providing an introduction to the life at the emperor's palaces, and offering a comprehensive view of imperial art during Qianlong's reign, Splendors of China's Forbidden City is the only work in any Western language devoted exclusively to the court arts of China in the mid-eighteenth century, their last golden age. Many of the objects depicted have never previously been published, and include paintings on canvas, silk and paper, sculptures, palace furnishings, musical instruments, ceremonial clothing, arms and armour, table services and jewellery. This book offers an unprecedented insight into one of the most glittering courts in world history.

Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong

Bennet Bronson

Merrell Pub Ltd

Pages are clean and binding is tight. If applicable, online access, codes or supplements are not guaranteed to be included or work.

Splendors of China's Forbidden City

Merrell Publishers Limited

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