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

76 I HALI 144

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