Enfilade

From Böhlau Verlag and Perlego:

Lukas Nickel and Anette Froesch, eds., Placing China at the Courts of Europe, 1700–1800 (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2026), 308 pages, ISBN: 978-3412535407, €39.

China, the country at the far end of Asia, occupied the European imagination throughout the 18th century, although only adventurous traders and intrepid missionaries had actually seen it for themselves. Tales about its long history, literary tradition, ethical values, social harmony, and advanced economy stirred intellectual fascination, while a growing long-distance trade made porcelain, lacquer screens, paintings on silk and paper, and soapstone sculptures increasingly accessible. Rulers, nobility, and clergy sought to associate themselves with the famed culture in the east by collecting artworks and adding Chinese-inspired rooms and buildings to their palaces and gardens. As patrons in England, Spain, France, the German and Italian states, and the Habsburg empire shaped varying perceptions and connected diverse ideas with chinoiserie, this book investigates the phenomenon at courts across Europe. It is the result of a collaboration between the Institute of Art History of the University of Vienna and the Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz.

Lukas Nickel is Professor of Art History of Asia at the University of Vienna. His research focusses on Chinese art and archaeology, and the past interaction of East Asia with Europe.
Anette Froesch is Head of the Palaces and Art Collections Department at the Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz.

c o n t e n t s

Preface

• Introduction — Lukas Nickel and Anette Froesch
• Chinese-inspired Spaces and Their Connotations in Habsburg Austria and Beyond — Lukas Nickel
• Visual Expressions of a Political Discourse — Anette Froesch
• France and China — Stéphane Castelluccio
• A Dialectic of Taste — Emile de Bruijn
• Queen Elisabeth Farnese’s East Asian Collections — Maria Cinta Krahe Noblett
• Prussian Pioneers — Constantijn Johannes Leliveld
• Think Big — Cordula Bischoff
• Chinoiserie in Schönbrunn Palace — Elfriede Iby
• Pleasures in Elysium — Györgyi Fajcsák
• Italian Hands Painting nel gusto cinese — Denise Gubitosi
• Piedmont and China — Luca Malvicino
• In the Chinese Taste — Kristel Smentek

Index