Imperial Illusions
eBook - PDF
Available until 23 Dec |Learn more

Imperial Illusions

Crossing Pictorial Boundaries in the Qing Palaces

  1. 400 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Available until 23 Dec |Learn more

Imperial Illusions

Crossing Pictorial Boundaries in the Qing Palaces

About this book

In the Forbidden City and other palaces around Beijing, Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) surrounded himself with monumental paintings of architecture, gardens, people, and faraway places. The best artists of the imperial painting academy, including a number of European missionary painters, used Western perspectival illusionism to transform walls and ceilings with visually striking images that were also deeply meaningful to Qianlong. These unprecedented works not only offer new insights into late imperial China's most influential emperor, but also reflect one way in which Chinese art integrated and domesticated foreign ideas. In Imperial Illusions, Kristina Kleutghen examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of "scenic illusion paintings" (tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City. Produced at the height of early modern cultural exchange between China and Europe, these works have received little scholarly attention. Richly illustrated, Imperial Illusions offers the first comprehensive investigation of the aesthetic, cultural, perceptual, and political importance of these illusionistic paintings essential to Qianlong's world. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/imperial-illusions

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Yes, you can access Imperial Illusions by Kristina Kleutghen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Art & Asian Art. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Note to Readers
  4. Chronology of Chinese Dynasties and Political Periods
  5. Introduction: A New Vision of Painting
  6. One. Painted Walls and Pictorial Illusions
  7. Two. The Study of Vision
  8. Three. Contemplating the Future
  9. Four. Peacocks and Cave- Heavens
  10. Five. Staging Europe
  11. Six. The Beauty in the Garden
  12. Epilogue: Illusions, Imperial and Otherwise
  13. Appendix: Chinese Texts
  14. Notes
  15. Glossary of Chinese Characters
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index