Exhibition | Biedermeier: The Rise of an Era
Now on view at the Leopold Museum, with the full press release available at Art Daily . . .
Biedermeier: The Rise of an Era / Eine Epoche im Aufbruch
Leopold Museum, Vienna, 10 April — 27 July 2025
Curated by Johann Kräftner with Lili-Vienne Debus
Day Dress, ca. 1816 (Wien Museum; photo by Birgit and Peter Kainz).
The fascinating era of the Biedermeier, which lasted from around the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 to the revolutions of 1848, delineates a period in Europe that was shaped by political upheaval and social revolts, which profoundly changed society. The congress resulted in the restitution of absolutism and princely rule, heralding a long phase of political restoration founded on a suppression of democratic aspirations. The resigned population turned away from politics and revolutionary ideals for fear of reprisals, seeking refuge in the private sphere. Themes of longing for security and harmony in everyday life entered the pictorial worlds of the Biedermeier.
Aside from all the political friction, the Biedermeier was also an era of great innovation and esthetical changes. The most important driving force was the industrial progress, which led to the construction of the first railway lines and spectacular suspension bridges, like the one connecting Buda and Pest. These technological revolutions resulted in decisive changes in the development of art. Many of these innovations did not emanate from Vienna as the center of the Habsburg Monarchy, but rather from the splendid cities of the crown lands, such as Budapest, Prague, Ljubljana, Trieste, Venice, and Milan.
The art of the monarchy was shaped by international exchange. Thus, the exhibition showcases not only the Viennese masters, including Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and Friedrich von Amerling, but also Miklós Barabás and József Borsos from Budapest, Antonín Machek and František Tkadlík from Prague, as well as the artists active in Lombardy-Venetia Francesco Hayez and Jožef Tominc (Giuseppe Tominz).
Secretary, Bohemia, ca. 1820 (Prague: The Museum of Decorative Arts; photo by Gabriel Urbánek and Ondřej Kocourek).
Despite the severe poverty of the time, which affected large segments of the population, the simultaneous economic upturn yielded a bourgeoisie whose members wanted to be depicted in confident portraits. Alongside portraits celebrating realistic likenesses of the depicted and the documentation of their social status, the pictorial worlds were dominated by themes from everyday life: family portraits, genre paintings, and renderings of the artists’ own surroundings. Despite the Biedermeier’s typical restrictions to the microcosm of the everyday and one’s immediate surroundings, artists of the period also looked further afield to far-flung countries and cities in order to satisfy people’s curiosity and interest in foreign cultures. Featuring around 190 works from Austrian and international collections, ranging from paintings and graphic works to furnishings, glassware and dresses, the exhibition presents a varied picture of this era.
Curator: Johann Kräftner
Curatorial Assistance and Project Coordination: Lili-Vienne Debus
Johann Kräftner and Hans-Peter Wipplinger, eds., Biedermeier: Eine Epoche im Aufbruch / The Rise of an Era (Cologne: Walther König, 2025), 328 pages, ISBN: 978-3753308159, €40.
The catalogue, in German and English, includes essays by Lili-Vienne Debus, Sabine Grabner, Johann Kräftner, Stefan Kutzenberger, Michaela Lindinger, Fernando Mazzocca, Juliane Mikoletzky, Adrienn Prágai and Radim Vondráček, as well as a prologue by Hans-Peter Wipplinger.
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Note (added 23 April 2025) — This posting originally appeared April 22; it was moved back to April 21st for improved continuity with other posts.
Exhibition | Art and Power in the Age of the Doges of Genoa
Some 100 works—paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts—from the 17th and 18th centuries are now on view in Turin for this exhibition produced in collaboration with the National Museums of Genoa–Palazzo Spinola and the National Gallery of Liguria.
Magnificent Collections: Art and Power during the Age of the Doges of Genoa
Reggia di Venaria, Torino, 10 April — 7 September 2025
Curated by Gianluca Zanelli, Marie Luce Repetto, Andrea Merlotti, and Clara Goria, with Donatella Zanardo
Anton von Maron, Portrait of Maria Geronima Pellegrina ‘Lilla’ Cambiaso and Her Daughter Caterina, 1792, oil on canvas (Genoa: Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria).
In mostra alla Reggia di Venaria le straordinarie raccolte d’arte di alcune delle più importanti famiglie del patriziato genovese (i Pallavicino, i Doria, gli Spinola, i Balbi) conservate a Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria, insieme alle più recenti acquisizioni dei Musei Nazionali di Genova con prestiti da altri musei e collezioni private.
Un patrimonio unico di arte e storia che annovera celebri dipinti di Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon Van Dyck, Orazio Gentileschi, Guido Reni, Carlo Maratta, Luca Giordano, e poi ancora Hyacinthe Rigaud e Angelica Kauffman, oltre ai maestri della grande scuola figurativa genovese. Attraverso un centinaio di opere tra dipinti, sculture, argenti e arredi del Sei e Settecento, si proporrà un percorso espositivo, suddiviso in sei sezioni, riferito alle raccolte del palazzo poi divenuto museo, ma anche il racconto del secolo d’oro di Genova ‘la Superba’, teatro del Barocco, antica repubblica retta dai dogi, con la sua regalità e fasto. La mostra continua il grande filone dedicato alla storia, all’arte, alla cultura e alla magnificenza delle corti inaugurato dalla riapertura della Reggia e proseguito negli anni.
Gianluca Zanelli and Marie Luce Repetto, eds., Magnifiche collezioni: Arte e potere nella Genova dei Dogi (Genoa: Sagep Editori, 2025), 128 pages, ISBN: 979-1255902041, €18.
Exhibition | Music and the Republic
Now on view at the Musée des Archives Nationales:
Music and the Republic: From the French Revolution to the Popular Front
Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, 26 March — 14 July 2025
Curated by Marie Ranquet, Sophie Lévy, and Christophe Barret
L’exposition Musique et République, de la Révolution au Front populaire—organisée avec le concours du Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris—souhaite mettre en lumière les liens entre la musique et la construction de la République. De la Révolution, qui organise de nouvelles institutions et utilise la musique pour fonder un sentiment patriotique, au Front populaire de 1936, qui fait le pari de l’émancipation sociale du citoyen par l’accès aux loisirs et à la culture, la formation et la pratique musicale permettent à la fois le partage d’un patrimoine sonore commun et l’expression personnelle, parfois subversive.
Les Archives nationales retracent l’histoire de cette rencontre entre le citoyen et la musique. Des partitions inédites retrouvées dans les fonds des Archives nationales, des instruments de musique étonnants ou oubliés, des correspondances politiques, des commandes passées à des compositeurs prestigieux et de nombreux autres documents, racontent une histoire mouvementée : celle d’un siècle et demi de production, d’éducation et de pratique musicales, envisagées en regard de l’idée républicaine.
Commissariat scientifique
• Marie Ranquet, conservatrice en chef du patrimoine aux Archives nationales
• Sophie Lévy, responsable des archives au Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris
Commissariat technique
• Christophe Barret, chargé d’expositions au département de l’Action culturelle et éducative des Archives nationales
Musique et République: De la Révolution au Front populaire (Paris: Éditions Snoeck, 2025), 168 pages, ISBN: 978-9461619464, €30. With contributions by Adrián Almoguera, Mathias Auclair, Rémy Campos, Myriam Chimènes, Peter Hicks, Sophie Lévy, Marie Ranquet, Émeline Rotolo, and Charles-Éloi Vial.
Exhibition | Hogarth’s Progress
William Hogarth, The Rake’s Progress, Plate 1, published 25 June 1735, etching and engraving
(Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, 1975.203)
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Now on view at Oberlin:
Hogarth’s Progress
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, 31 January — 10 August 2025
Organized by Marlise Brown
English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764) used his art to hold up a moralizing mirror to all levels of 18th-century society. From rakes to harlots and aristocrats to the clergy—no one was exempt from his biting yet humorous art.
In 1731, Hogarth began creating a series of artworks that he termed ‘modern moral subjects’, which focused on the immoral bend of contemporary London while satirizing the vice and folly of his characters. This exhibition focuses on his first two ‘modern moral subjects’: The Harlot’s Progress (1732), which is a narrative in six scenes, and The Rake’s Progress (1735), which is completed in eight scenes. These sets, offered on subscription, sold out quickly because they were immensely popular with people from all walks of life in England.
Hogarth’s term ‘progress’ was inspired by the book The Pilgrim’s Progress, first published by the English author John Bunyan in 1678. However, unlike the protagonists in Bunyan’s moralizing Christian allegory, Hogarth’s ‘Harlot’ and ‘Rake’ do not grow or learn from life’s experiences. Instead, Hogarth’s narrative series exposes the shallowness of aristocracy, the vices and indulgences of modern London, and showcases complicated ideas in a new form of visual theater.
Organized by Marlise Brown, Assistant Curator of European and American Art.
The Burlington Magazine, March 2025
The long 18th century in the March issue of The Burlington:
The Burlington Magazine 167 (March 2025)
Cover of The Burlington Magazine with a recent acquisition at The Met: Longcase equation regulator, clockmaker: Ferdinand Berthoud, case maker: Balthazar Lieutaud, ca. 1752 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.28a–e).
e d i t o r i a l
• “A Frick Renaissance,” p. 203–05.
On 17th April 2025 the Frick Collection on Fifth Avenue re-opens after a long period of redevelopment. When an old friend has a face lift, the results can be disconcerting. Happily, the impact here is, however, reassuringly subtle—as the splendid Gilded-age character of one of New York’s iconic cultural institutions has been retained, while elegant new facilities have been deftly integrated.
a r t i c l e s
• Julia Seimon, “Two Boys with a Bladder in the J. Paul Getty Museum and Joseph Wright of Derby’s Early Candlelights,” pp. 242–57.
A careful re-assessment of Joseph Wright of Derby’s painting of Two Boys with a Bladder in the Getty’s collection, supported by documentary discoveries, clarifies the circumstances of the painting’s creation and first exhibition and has significant implications for dating several of the artist’s other painted and drawn works.
s h o r t e r n o t i c e s
• Oliver Fairclough, “Paul Sandby and Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Revisited,” pp. 258–61.
• Christina Milton O’Connell, “Observations about the Abandoned Portrait beneath Gainsborough’s Blue Boy,” pp. 26–65.
r e v i e w s
Cover of Être sculpteur à Florence au temps des derniers Médicis, featuring a photograph of Giovanni Battista Foggini’s Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1675, marble (Saint Petersburg: Hermitage).
• Nicola Ciarlo, Review of Kira d’Alburquerque, Être sculpteur à Florence au temps des derniers Médicis (CTHS, 2023), pp. 292–94.
• Adam Bowett, Review of Stephen Jackson, Scottish Furniture 1500–1914 (NMS Publishing, 2024), pp. 296–98.
• Penelope Curtis, Review of the exhibition catalogue Souvenirs de jeunesse: Entrer aux Beaux-Arts de Paris 1780–1980, edited by Alice Thomine-Berrada (Beaux-Arts de Paris, 2024), pp. 298–99.
• Alan Powers, Review of Edward McParland, The Language of Architectural Classicism: From Looking to Seeing (Lund Humphries Publishers, 2025), pp. 299–300.
• Max Marmor, Review of Julius von Schlosser, The Literature of Art: A Manual for Source Work in the History of Early Modern European Art Theory, translated by Karl Johns (Ariadne Press, 2023), p. 303.
s u p p l e m e n t
• Sarah Lawrence, “Recent Acquisitions (2014–24) of European Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” pp. 305–24.
Exhibition | Return to Turtle Island
Ancestral Great Lakes artist, Quilled headband, mid-18th century; hide, birchbark, porcupine quills, natural dyes, and linen thread; 6 × 32 × 9 cm (Toledo Museum of Art, purchased with funds from The Joseph and Kathleen Magliochetti Fund, 2023.375).
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From the press release for the exhibition (the Rachel Ruysch show will also be on view at TMA starting April 12). . .
Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation-Building in the Eighteenth Century
Toledo Museum of Art, 1 March — 29 June 2025
Curated by Johanna Minich, with the Great Lakes Research Alliance at the University of Toronto
The Toledo Museum of Art is pleased to present Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation-Building in the Eighteenth Century, an exhibition that showcases recently acquired Eastern Woodlands objects and offers a rare exploration of early Indigenous artistry and diplomacy. This will be the first time these works, acquired by TMA in 2023, will be shown together by a public institution. The exhibition honors the remarkable journey of these cultural emissaries and welcomes them home.
Turtle Island, a name given to the North American continent by Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and other Indigenous peoples, references the origin story of a landmass built on the back of a great turtle, symbolizing the interconnectedness of land and life.
Ancestral Great Lakes artist, Quilled and beaded finger-woven pouch, mid-18th century; wool, birchbark, glass beads, silk, porcupine quills, natural dyes, tin, deer fur, and hide, 38 × 38 × 1 cm (Toledo Museum of Art, purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott, 2023.357).
“Return to Turtle Island offers a unique window into a period of dynamic interaction between Indigenous and European communities in North America,” said Johanna Minich, the museum’s consulting curator of Native American art. “These objects represent far more than material goods—they serve as symbols of artistic knowledge, cultural exchange, and diplomacy that shaped early American history.”
Featuring 24 objects, including quillwork, beadwork, moosehair embroidery, and birchbark artforms acquired by TMA in 2023, this exhibition examines how Indigenous nations used these objects as tools of cultural expression, political alliance, and commerce during a time of dynamic interaction with European settlers.
“This exhibition exemplifies the Toledo Museum of Art’s strategy: That a relentless commitment to quality results in global and inclusive art history.” said Adam Levine, Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey Director, President, and CEO. “By showcasing these extraordinary objects, we are fostering a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of cultures and their enduring contributions to our shared history.”
The exhibition highlights the artistic skills of women and how their creative output was an integral part of nation-building, diplomacy, and economic sustainability. Indigenous leaders exchanged gifts and knowledge with their French and English allies during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, which had lasting implications for both Native and European communities.
Highlights include
• A quilled and beaded finger-woven pouch, a testament to the artistry of its makers.
• Beaded and quilled fingerwoven pictorial garter pendants, symbolizing the significance of proper attire when forming alliances.
• A birchbark model canoe and three dolls with assorted equipment, showcasing the cross-cultural artistic exchanges of the era.
The objects were originally collected through gift exchanges and purchases during the 18th century by Scottish officer Alexander Farquharson during his military travels through New York and Canada. For centuries, they remained in his family estate in Scotland before returning to North America in the early 2000s. TMA acquired the collection in late 2023.
To ensure the ethical conservation and presentation of these objects, TMA is collaborating with the Great Lakes Research Alliance (GRASAC) at the University of Toronto. Drawing on a network of Indigenous scholars and knowledge keepers, GRASAC provides guidance on the care and contextual display of these significant artworks.
“This collaboration with GRASAC ensures that the legacy of these objects is preserved with the utmost respect,” Minich added. “By working with descendants of their makers, we honor the original purpose of these works: sharing knowledge and strengthening relationships.”
Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation-Building in the Eighteenth Century is made possible with the generous support of Presenting Sponsors Susan and Tom Palmer; Season Sponsors Taylor Automotive Family and the Rita Barbour Kern Foundation; Platinum Sponsor AGC of Northwest Ohio; and additional funding from the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Exhibition | Andrea Appiani (1754–1817)
Now on view at the Château de Bois-Préau in Rueil-Malmaison (as noted at Art History News) . . .
Andrea Appiani (1754–1817): Napoleon’s Painter in Italy
Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, 16 March — 28 July 2025
Curated by Francesco Leone, Fernando Mazzocca, and Simone Ferraro
Une centaine d’oeuvres—peintures, dessins, gravures, médailles appartenant à des collections européennes publiques et privées—sont réunies pour la première rétrospective organisée en France sur cet artiste, considéré comme le plus important peintre de la période néo-classique au nord de l’Italie. L’exposition révélera un portraitiste attachant et un fresquiste brillant, malgré la destruction d’une partie de ses décors peints au Palais Royal et dans certains hôtels particuliers milanais durant les bombardements de 1943.
Victorieux à la bataille du Pont de Lodi le 10 mai 1796, le général Bonaparte fait son entrée dans Milan le 15. Il y rencontre Appiani dont le talent est reconnu pour des décors de théâtre, d’hôtels particuliers et d’églises ainsi que des portraits. La manière de l’artiste a déjà perdu de la relative raideur de ses débuts et le peintre-décorateur sait combiner la précision et la fermeté du trait avec la délicatesse du modelé et la suavité de la matière. Trois ans plus tard, au retour des Français, à l’occasion de la Deuxième campagne d’Italie, Appiani se voit confier par Napoléon la charge de sélectionner les oeuvres d’art prélevées dans les églises et les couvents pour enrichir et faire rayonner les musées du Nord de la péninsule.
L’ascension d’Appiani, iconographe de la république puis du Royaume d’Italie est consacrée par le nombre important de commandes publiques et privées qu’il reçoit alors. En cinq séquences chronologiques et thématiques, l’exposition permet de montrer l’oeuvre de l’artiste à la fois fresquiste et peintre de chevalet : La carrière pré-napoléonienne, Les Fastes de Napoléon, Portraits publics et privés, Décors à fresque et, Fortune artistique d’Appiani.
Présentée dans les salons du château de Bois-Préau, l’exposition révèle au public le talent et la richesse de l’oeuvre de cet artiste au service de l’Empereur. L’exposition présente la manière sensible, monumentale ou intimiste du plus grand artiste milanais de son temps : les débuts d’un peintre formé au dix-huitième siècle, les scènes de la geste napoléonienne et de la république naissante, les effigies de Napoléon et Joséphine, les études et dessins préparatoires pour les décors des hôtels particuliers et des églises.
Exposition produite par le GrandPalaisRmn.
Rémi Cariel, ed., Andrea Appiani: Le peintre de Napoléon en Italie (Paris: Éditions Flammarion, 2025), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-2711880737, €40.
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At the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris:
Rémi Cariel and Alessandro Morandotti | Andrea Appiani et la tradition artistique de la Lombardie
Institut culturel italien, Paris, 31 March 2025, 6.30pm
A l’occasion de l’exposition temporaire Andrea Appiani (1754–1817): Le peintre de Napoléon en Italie, l’Institut Culturel Italien rend hommage à ce grand peintre italien avec une conférence autour de sa figure. La conférence explorera sa vie et sa carrière avec une attention particulière aux racines de sa culture. Avec Rémi Cariel, conservateur en chef du patrimoine en charge des collections de peintures, sculptures et arts graphiques du Musée Malmaison et Alessandro Morandotti, professeur d’histoire de l’art moderne et président du cursus d’Histoire de l’Art de l’Université de Turin.
Book tickets here»
Exhibition | Brenet: Painter to the King
As noted at Art History News, from the press materials for the exhibition:
Brenet: Un peintre du roi à Douai au 18e siècle
Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, 19 March — 23 June 2025
Curated by Pierre Bonnaure and Marie Fournier
Le musée de la Chartreuse de Douai présente la première exposition jamais consacrée au peintre Nicolas-Guy Brenet (Paris, 1728–1792), l’un des rénovateurs de la peinture d’Histoire à la veille de la Révolution.
Formé auprès des plus grands maîtres de la première moitié du 18e siècle (Charles Antoine Coypel, François Boucher et Carle Vanloo), puis à l’Académie de France à Rome, Nicolas-Guy Brenet est reçu à l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture en 1769, l’année même où il exécute de grands décors pour Douai. Il conçoit un cycle de six peintures allégoriques toujours en place au sein de l’actuel palais de justice, l’ancien parlement de Flandre. Il travaille également au décor de la collégiale Saint-Pierre en peignant un spectaculaire Triomphe de la Vierge, encore visible à son emplacement d’origine, dans la chapelle du Dôme. À Paris, il honore tout au long de sa carrière de prestigieuses commandes destinées principalement à l’Église, ainsi qu’aux rois Louis XV et Louis XVI.
Cette première exposition consacrée à Nicolas-Guy Brenet permet de découvrir à travers une sélection de tableaux, d’esquisses et de dessins, un artiste emblématique du renouveau de la peinture d’Histoire de la seconde moitié du siècle des Lumières et d’apprécier la richesse de la vie artistique douaisienne au temps des parlementaires de Flandre.
• 42 œuvres exposées dans la salle capitulaire du musée de la Chartreuse
• 37 prêteurs (particuliers et institutions), dont le musée du Louvre et le château de Versailles, les musées de Compiègne, Quimper, Dunkerque, Orléans, Strasbourg, Blois etc.
Information about Marie Fournier’s 2023 monograph on Brenet is available here»
The full exhibition brochure is available here»
New Book | Imagined Neighbors: Visions of China in Japanese Art
I’m sorry for not posting earlier news of the exhibition, which was on view in Washington at the National Museum of Asian Art from 16 March until 15 September 2024. Fortunately, the catalogue is still available. –CH
Frank Feltens, ed., with additional contributions by Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka, Imagined Neighbors: Visions of China in Japanese Art, 1680–1980 (Munich: Hirmer Publishers, 2024), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-3777442662, $65.
Imagined Neighbors: Visions of China in Japanese Art examines Japanese artistic understanding of China from the late 1600s, Japan’s period of seclusion, to its age of modernization after the mid-nineteenth century. It focuses on ways Japanese painters from the late 1600s to the twentieth century pictured China, both as a real place and as an imagined promised land. It features three essays by renowned Japanese art historians in addition to more than fifty catalog entries highlighting unusual artworks revealing Japanese artists’ complex responses to Chinese art, history, and culture. In recent years, a handful of scholarly studies have tried to push against the established narrative of an exclusively Western-inspired modern Japan. Imagined Neighbors challenges the established narrative of an exclusively Western-inspired modern Japan by offering a more nuanced approach to understanding the country’s struggle with reconciling the old with the new as it reinvented itself into a modern nation-state.
Frank Feltens is curator of Japanese art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
Paul Berry is an independent scholar of Japanese art and cinema who has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and Kansai Gaidai University.
Michiyo Morioka is an independent scholar of Japanese art based in Seattle.
Exhibition | A Movable Feast: Food and Drink in China
Ding Guanpeng (active 1726–1770), A Night Banquet at the Peach and Plum Garden, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), handscroll, ink, and colour on paper
(Beijing: The Palace Museum)
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From the press release and the general exhibition description:
A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China
Hong Kong Palace Museum, 19 March — 18 June 2025
A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China offers a fresh perspective centred on the concept of ‘mobility’, connecting significant aspects of Chinese food culture. Over 110 exquisite artefacts have been meticulously selected to explore the evolution of food vessels, eating practices, and related traditions, comprehensively illustrating the rich culinary culture and lifestyle throughout the history of China. Food culture encompasses the sourcing and utilisation of ingredients, the preparation and processing of food, and the consumption of food as well as the customs, etiquette, and ideologies developed around eating and drinking. It touches nearly every aspect of our material and spiritual life. According to anthropological archaeologist Kwang-chih Chang, “one of the best ways of getting to a culture’s heart would be through its stomach.”
Food culture is naturally an important element of the Chinese civilisation. This exhibition invites visitors to enjoy a multicourse feast spanning five thousand years of Chinese history. The first part, “Crossing from Life to Death”, features a ceremonial meal for the deceased. Showcasing ritual and burial objects related to food and drink dated from the Neolithic period (about 10000–2000 BCE) to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), this section demonstrates the importance of transferring food and drink to the afterlife in Chinese beliefs. The second section “Crossing Cultures” presents a multicultural banquet, focusing on eating and drinking vessels from the Tang (618–907) to Song (960–1279) periods, such as platters and ewers introduced to China through the Silk Routes. It reveals how China and Central and West Asia embraced each other’s eating practices. The next section “Crossing Mountains and Lakes” exhibits famous scenes of literati gatherings and picnic sets produced in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, which demonstrates the important role food and drink played at elegant gatherings and excursions. Finally, at the “Crossing Time” multimedia table, visitors are encouraged to find out more about the past and present lives of modern eating and drinking vessels.
Accompanying the exhibition is the publication A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China, available in both Traditional Chinese and English. The book features six chapters written by a team of scholars and experts from the Hong Kong Palace Museum and around the world—addressing how people have traversed the culinary landscape with food and eating utensils for 5,000 years, examining preparations for the afterlife, adaptations to foreign culinary practices from other regions, and the enjoyment of outdoor picnics. The catalogue will be available at the Hong Kong Museum and later from major bookstores in Hong Kong.
Crossing from Life to Death: Feeding the Spirits
The first section features food and drink vessels used in rituals and burials from the Neolithic period to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Key objects on display include the zun (wine vessel) for Father Ding and the jue (wine vessel) of Marquis of Lu from the Palace Museum’s collection, dating back to the Western Zhou dynasty (about 1100–771 BCE). These bronze ritual vessels were used for making offerings and served as a medium between people and spirits.
A dou (food vessel) with cord pattern from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) was a container for pickles, preserved vegetables, meat sauce, gravy, and more. In a first-century Chinese dictionary, the character feng, meaning abundance, is explained by a pictograph of a dou filled with food, while some scholars further interpret it as depicting two skewers of meat on a dou. The Chinese character li, meaning ritual, also has a component of feng, a further indicator of the significance of food and food vessels in Chinese culture.
During the mid-to late Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE), earthenware burial objects in the shape of granaries, wells, stoves, pigsties, and chicken coops were prevalent, not only mirroring the way of life and the flourishing food culture of the time but also signifying people’s desire for an abundant afterlife. A model of a brazier with cicadas, from the Hong Kong Museum of Art, was fired using low-temperature lead glaze, resulting in striking colours. The roasting rack with two rows of cicadas illustrates the custom of eating cicadas during this period.
Crossing Cultures: Nomadic Eating Practices
The second section presents the intersection and integration of culinary customs between China and Central and West Asia during the Tang (618–907), Song (960–1279), and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties, demonstrating how the richness and evolution of ‘tradition’ develops over time. The introduction of new ingredients, utensils, and tall furniture to the Central Plains via the Silk Routes significantly transformed the region’s food culture. Foods from Central Asia were given the prefix hu (roughly indicates regions beyond the Central Plains of China), as seen in terms like hujiao (black pepper), hutao (walnuts), and huma (sesame), which remain widely used today
Among the exhibits in this section is a quatrefoil cup from the Tang Dynasty (877), which traces its origins back to the Sassanian Empire (present-day Iran). Scholars believe it is associated with the term ‘poluo’, a foreign term that frequently appeared in Tang and Song poetry, referring to a drinking vessel for alcoholic drinks. The renowned poet Li Bai (701–762) wrote about it, saying “Grape wine, gold poluo, a hu girl aged 15 years was carried by a fine horse.” To this day, the term ‘gold poluo’ is used in Cantonese to describe a greatly cherished child. Another key exhibit, a phoenix-head ewer, which features a handle and spout. This vessel exemplifies how the nomadic drinking custom of pouring wine from ewers gradually replaced the tradition of spooning wine from a jar with a ladle in the Central Plains.
With the introduction of hu foods to the Central Plains, large platters emerged during the Tang dynasty to accommodate nomadic foods such as hubing (hu flatbread) and sushan (shaved ice-like dessert). By the Yuan and Ming (1368–1644) periods, large platters produced in China had become important export commodities, enjoying popularity in the Middle East. Historical records from the Ottoman Empire indicate that porcelain was frequently used for banquet serving ware during significant ceremonies, such as the sultan’s accession, birthdays, and weddings. One of the exhibits, a dish with chrysanthemum and lotus scrolls from the Ming dynasty closely resembles a 15th-century blue-and-white platter in the collection of the Ardabil Shrine in Iran, exemplifying the multidirectional nature of cultural exchange.
Crossing Mountains and Lakes: Packing the Perfect Picnic
The third section showcases the mobility of food and drink across different landscapes by presenting artworks and picnic sets of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Historically significant excursions and picnics have become a source of inspiration for numerous calligraphies, paintings, and other works of art. For example, A Night Banquet at the Peach and Plum Garden by the renowned Qing court painter, Ding Guanpeng (active 1726–1770), portrays the famous Tang poet Li Bai (701–762) and his cousins enjoying a banquet amidst a garden filled with peach blossoms.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of dining on pleasure boats became a particularly popular activity along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Late Ming literati considered that an elegant pleasure boat should accommodate “six hosts and guests and four attendants” and allow them to brew tea during the excursion. A notable exhibit, an ivory boat from the British Museum’s Qing dynasty collection, vividly captures a leisurely outing on the water: two bearded men enjoy a chat over tea under the canopy of the boat, while others carry a food container and net freshwater fish from the lake.
The design of the paraphernalia used for these excursions was intended to keep objects organised, preventing them from colliding, and ensuring that the objects remained safe and accessible during travel. The Qing imperial court later adopted these organisational boxes to manage and store cultural artefacts accumulated in the palaces. The exhibition features a box of curiosities assembled during the Qing dynasty, intricately designed to hold a variety of antiques crafted from different materials, transforming it into a curated collection of treasures.
Crossing Time: The Heritage
The final section features multimedia interactive installations that blend ancient and modern scenes and artefacts, inviting the audience to enjoy a virtual feast that transcends time and space. Visitors can simulate ordering food at a virtual dining table while observing the cooking processes of various dishes, allowing them to discover diverse cooking techniques associated with these utensils.
The exhibition is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Palace Museum and The Palace Museum. The exhibits mainly come from The Palace Museum and the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The British Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the Hong Kong Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware have also provided a number of loans. The Robert Chang Art Education Charitable Foundation is the exhibition’s Supporting Sponsor.
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