Enfilade

Thanks to Style Court for noting this one. From the Met:

Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 15 December 2010 — 1 May 2011

Tablet with Design for a Carpet, Qianlong period (1736–95), ivory with pigment, 13 inches (33 cm) high (Metropolitan Museum of Art; gift of James F. Ballard, 1923; 23.233.2)

The art of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) has informed Western perceptions of Chinese taste and imagery for centuries, beginning in the late seventeenth century with the European craze for chinoiserie and continuing to this day. Ruled by the Manchus, a non-Han Chinese people from the far northeast, the Qing dynasty, in particular the reign of the powerful and erudite Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795), was a period of peace and prosperity that witnessed a spectacular flowering of the visual arts. Textiles, lacquers, ivories, jades, porcelains, and other objects were created both in palace workshops in Beijing and in specialized artistic centers such as the enormous kiln complex at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province.

Works in all media exhibit an appreciation for multilayered surfaces covered with dense, disciplined designs, many drawn from earlier periods in Chinese art. Included are figural scenes based on Chinese literature and history; popular gods and mythical creatures such as dragons and phoenixes; birds, bats, fish, deer, and other animals; trees, plants, and flowers; and geometric designs. Most of these motifs are imbued with meanings—usually auspicious—derived from long-standing cultural traditions. For example, the peony, which was first cultivated in the eighth century, alludes to spring and denotes wealth, while the chrysanthemum reflects autumn and symbolizes longevity. The pine tree, deer, and crane also evoke longevity, while squirrels, grapes, and gourds express a wish for generations of children. Other themes exploit the homonymic potential of the Chinese language, in which a word such as “bat” (pronounced in Chinese as “fu”) can symbolize “good fortune” (the character for which is also read as “fu”). This rich visual language enhanced the meaning of gifts, given seasonally and for important events such as birthdays, and of objects intended for display, either individually or in groups, thus creating specific messages for special occasions.

Drawn largely from the Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition explores the vibrancy and innovation of Chinese art in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, underscoring the taste for extravagant imagery that characterized the period. In one room, theatrical costumes used in lavish court performances are on display, while objects in another room demonstrate the mastery with which Qing artists manipulated natural materials such as lacquer (made from tree sap), ivory, and bamboo. The third room features works in more resilient materials—jade and other hard stones, metals, and enamels—that were made not only for the court but as part of the extensive global trade in Chinese objects that marked this period in world history.

Description of the exhibition from the Académie de Paris website:

Dans l’atelier des Menus Plaisirs du roi: Spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies aux XVII et XVIIIe siècles
National Archives, hôtel de Soubise, Paris, 19 January — 24 April 2011

Curated by Pierre Jugie and Jérôme de La Gorce

Du 19 janvier au 24 avril 2011, une sélection de 130 œuvres graphiques, pour la plupart inédites, essentiellement issues du fonds de la Maison du roi (série O1) aux Archives nationales, introduit le visiteur dans les coulisses des fastueux spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies royales.

Les Archives nationales ne conservent pas seulement les sources manuscrites les plus riches, relatives aux fêtes, aux spectacles et aux cérémonies, organisés aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles à Paris et à la cour de France. Elles abritent aussi une exceptionnelle collection de plus de sept cent soixante dessins, constituée en 1752 par les Menus Plaisirs, département de la Maison du roi chargé de créer et de financer ces prestigieuses manifestations dans les résidences du souverain et dans les grands sanctuaires de la monarchie qu’étaient la basilique Saint-Denis et au cœur de la capitale, la cathédrale Notre-Dame.

Le service des Menus Plaisirs, chargé d’organiser et de financer les spectacles et les fêtes de la Cour, employait les meilleurs artistes et techniciens de son temps, pour imaginer et réaliser les décors, costumes, machines et accessoires susceptibles de provoquer l’émerveillement des spectateurs. Les Menus Plaisirs étaient également sollicités pour la mise en scène des grandes cérémonies de pompes funèbres, dont l’exubérance même invitait à la méditation sur la vanité des gloires humaines. Par-delà la magie des représentations, le visiteur pourra admirer la variété, la qualité graphique des dessins et estampes présentés et apprécier l’ingéniosité de leurs auteurs pour
créer l’illusion et susciter le rêve. Cette exposition s’ouvre à l’occasion du tricentenaire de la mort de Jean Berain (1640 – 1711), dessinateur du Cabinet du roi ayant largement mis son talent au service des Menus Plaisirs. Elle correspond également à la mise en ligne de l’intégralité des huit recueils constitués en 1752 par Antoine Angélique Levesque, garde magasin des Menus Plaisirs, pour y réunir quelque 800 dessins et estampes des meilleurs artistes des fêtes et spectacles royaux aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles : à côté de Deruet, Gissey, Berain, Sevin, Meissonnier et des frères Slodtz, les Italiens Torelli, Vigarani, Pizzoli, Algieri et Servandoni. La sélection présentée permet de goûter au merveilleux de l’opéra français, d’admirer les grandes fêtes versaillaises ou d’impressionnantes décorations, dans l’écrin d’époque que constituent les salons rocaille de l’hôtel de Soubise, siège des Archives nationales depuis 1808. C’est aux relations qu’entretiennent l’art et la politique que peut aussi nous sensibiliser l’exposition.

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A journée d’étude on the Menus Plaisirs is scheduled for 8 February 2011. A full list of accompanying events can be found at the National Archives website.

From the website of Yale University Library:

Illustrious Heads: Portrait Prints as History
The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT, 22 November 2010 — 29 July 2011

Curated by Cynthia Roman

Engraved “heads,” or portrait prints, in close alliance with literary history and biography, carried substantial power as expressions of political and social preoccupations in eighteenth-century England. Published for both book illustration and independent issue, with and without text, portrait prints recorded and articulated a national past that was conceived as the “portraiture” of illustrious historical persons—a visual and literary representation of a sequence of notable individuals—rather than as a narrative representation of a series of significant political, diplomatic, or military events. Additionally, straight portraits—and increasingly caricatures—of contemporary persons played a vital role in negotiating topical political and social issues and documenting the surrounding discourse for posterity. The prints selected for this exhibition suggest the variety of portrait and caricature publications and present some of the diverse ways in which they were considered as repositories of history,
biography, and anecdote. The exhibition also explores the engagement of
eighteenth-century audiences with questions of sitter classification,
authenticity, provenance, and scarcity.

From the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

A Royal Passion: Meissen and Asian Porcelain from Augustus the Strong’s Japanese Palace
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 18 December 2010 — 3 April 2011

Curated by Donna Corbin

"Figure of a Goat," ca. 1733, original modeled by Johann Joachim Kändler, hard-paste porcelain, 21 3/4 x 28 x 13 3/4 inches (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

In 1717, Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, known as “Augustus the Strong,” acquired a small palace on the right bank of the Elbe River in Dresden. He later enlarged the building and created what was essentially a “porcelain palace.” What became known as the Japanese Palace housed Augustus’s extensive collection of Asian ceramics—which numbered some 20,000 pieces—along with the products of the porcelain factory founded by his official decree in Meissen, near Dresden, in 1710. Within a decade, and after much experimentation, the Meissen factory became the first commercially viable European factory to produce a type of high-fired porcelain that closely resembled much-coveted Chinese and Japanese wares. In the scheme for the interior of the palace, the rooms on the second floor were reserved for the Meissen porcelain. The most spectacular display was a large gallery exhibiting a menagerie of life-size and near-life-size birds and animals made in porcelain. Orders and delivery began in 1730 for the projected 292 figures depicting thirty-two different birds and 296 figures representing thirty-seven other animals of domestic, exotic, and fantastic origin. Creation of the figures continued until 1736, some three years after Augustus’s death. While never completed, the project remains one of the outstanding artistic achievements of the eighteenth century. A Royal Passion, which celebrates the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Meissen factory, features nineteen pieces of porcelain from the Japanese Palace collection and highlights a pair of goats from the Museum’s permanent collection that was originally intended for Augustus’s porcelain menagerie.