CLASSICAL CHINESE CARPETS

Maria Schulz

Splendours of The Sons of Heaven

The recently ended exhibition of Chinese classical carpets at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologneis already being hailed by those that visited as an important point of reference for carpet scholars and enthusiasts. In order to assess the impact and significance of the events surrounding the show, we have combined a review of the exhibition by Nunzio Crisawith a response to the eponymous catalogue by Michael Buddeberg .

Nunzio Crisa: ‘Glanz der Himmelssöhne. Kaiserliche Teppiche aus China 1400-1750’, was the first exhibition in a European museum dedicated exclusively to historic Chinese carpets for almost a century, following the 1911 exhibition in Paris to inaugurate the Musée Berneschi. What are the features required of an exhibition organised by a museum? It should be innovative or anthological in character, capable of interesting both the novice and the fan, and, to some extent, the scholar. It should be educational. And it should be able to utilise the exhibition space well. Let’s begin with the last aspect. The Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne can be defined as a small ‘provincial’ museum, but its setting in a landscaped Japanese-style garden on the banks of a small lake, planned and built thirty years ago by the Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa, a pupil of Le Corbusier, makes it perfect for its subject matter. With the enthusiastic co-operation of Director Dr Adele

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Schlombs, Michael Franses, a dealer with many years’ experience organising gallery shows and stands at antiques fairs, as well as public exhibitions in institutional settings, left his stamp on the excellent display and lighting for the carpets, which were interspersed with Chinese period or other appropriate furnishings (8). The result was an inviting and aesthetically pleasing exhibition. The innovative aspect was that the museum was able for the first time anywhere to present historically and stylistically traceable objects permitting an anthological overview of the production and use of carpets in imperial China throughout the ‘golden age’ of this form of artistic expression, that is to say from the early 15th century until the death in 1722 of Emperor Kangxi, the most enlightened of its rulers. Recent excavations have proved that some use was made of carpets in China as early as the Western Han period (206 BC - 23 AD ). Where those carpets were made is

1. Ming imperial carpets on view in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne including (left) an imperial workshop carpet, Beijing, last quarter of 16th century, 2.97 x 6.25m (9'7" x 20'6"), private collection, Ticino and (right) a carpet made for the Hall of Supreme Harmony, imperial workshops, Beijing, last quarter of 16th century, 6.28 x 6.68m (20'7" x 21'11"), private collection, Lugano
2. Right: Portrait of a Lady, China, 18th or 19th century. 0.93 x 1.66m (3'1" x 5'5"). Private collection, London.

3. Below: Carpets with floral design including (left), a fragment with lotus, peonies, chrysanthemums and butterflies, Ningxia, second half of 17th century, 1.36 x 2.30m (4'6" x 7'7"), private collection and (middle), a fragment with butterflies and lotus blossoms, Ningxia, ca. 1720. 1.17 x 1.88m (3'10" x 6'2"), private collection, Ticino, and (right), carpet with peonies and lotus blossoms, Ningxia, ca. 1650, 1.94 x 2.59m (6'4" x 8'6"), private collection, Ticino

another matter. What may well be the earliest Chinese evidence to date is in the Orient Stars Collection, a fragment of a carpet made between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD somewhere in Central Asia or northwestern China. Later, in various paintings of the Tang period (618-907), there are clear depictions of carpets. But it was only with the expulsion of the Mongols from China by Zhu Yuanzhang, who took the name Hongwu, and the beginning of the Ming dynasty (13681644) that the restoration of the Chinese imperial tradition began. Palaces were built, first in Nanjing and then – following the relocation of the capital – in Beijing where, in 1421, construction started on the fortified complex known as the Forbidden City. For more than five hundred years, without interruption, it would house the emperors who occupied the throne of the Celestial Empire. From the outset, the floors of the main halls in the palace were covered with specially made pile carpets, partly for showbut also for practical reasons, as northern Chinese winters can be very severe. And although the Forbidden City acquired new palaces and some of the emperors undertook renovations over time, most of the large palace carpets remained in situ without suffering any great damage. Probably fewer than six hundred ‘classical’ Chinese carpets and fragments have survived to the present day. Of these, around a hundred are kept in the storerooms of the Palace Museum (the Forbidden City’s current designation), while another thirty or so are divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Maria Schulz

CLASSICAL CHINESE CARPETS

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