Art Seen by Chance#
Because I received a gift from a beautiful woman from Yunnan, I invited her to dinner today. Originally, I wanted to suggest having Western food, but when we arrived at the destination, I didn't feel like eating there, so we turned around and went into a Japanese restaurant (which was expensive).
The Japanese restaurant had a very "2D" vibe, with stickers of light music girls on the walls. While we were eating, they started playing the theme song from K-On! (I remembered it from my ancient memories of the 2D world).
Halfway through our meal, the power went out, probably because the air conditioning was too strong. The beautiful woman exclaimed, "How romantic! Are they trying to give me a candlelight dinner?" (Then she turned on her flashlight).
Although it was a bit pricey, the food was delicious. Of course, that's not the main point, but I just wanted to share a couple of pictures to make myself happy.
After we finished eating and drinking, we went to a tea shop and I ordered a cup of tea. I also grabbed a postcard, which had this picture on it:
Art can be found everywhere.
"Chinese Emperor" Tapestry Series#
In 1688, the Beauvais Tapestry Factory in France produced the "Chinese Emperor" series of tapestries, which were exquisite examples of Baroque-era Chinese-style art. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of this series on Google Arts, so I had to find some online to make up for it.
Image source: see watermark.
From this picture, you can tell that it depicts the author's imagination of China. At that time, many missionaries brought back gifts from China, which added to the portrayal of the "Golden Age" of the East in the Baroque style, arousing Louis XIV's strong interest in the mysterious ancient country of the East. He even personally appeared in a sedan chair wearing Chinese-style clothing, sparking a craze for "Chinese style" in France. If you look closely at Baroque-style paintings from that period, you can see many Chinese elements.
I found a few Baroque-style paintings, such as the classic painting of a Chinese Lady by the Baroque-style painter Boucher.
Boucher also included a painting in the "Chinese Emperor" tapestry series called "Chinese Emperor Reigns Supreme," which became a model for European study for several decades.
In 1767, French diplomats presented this set of Chinese-style tapestries to Emperor Qianlong. Emperor Qianlong liked them and placed them in the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) (just hearing the name of this place already gives you an idea of its fate). During the Second Opium War, the tapestries were brought back to Europe.
Missionary Jean-François Gerbillon and "Tianxue Chuangai"#
Returning to the painting on the postcard, the theme of this painting is "Tianxue Chuangai." I only found this series of things by searching for this keyword.
Jean-François Gerbillon, a missionary sent to China, reached the rank of first-class official and served as the head of the Imperial Observatory during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. However, in his later years, he was sentenced to Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts). Although he luckily survived, he died of illness the following year.
It was quite normal for a foreigner to be accused while being in charge of the Imperial Observatory. After all, it's the Chinese officialdom, and haven't you seen or heard about it? In order to respond to the accusations, Gerbillon and others compiled "Tianxue Chuangai." The main idea of this book was to introduce the story of Jesus and point out that the ancestors of the Chinese people came from the West, and Confucianism and Mencius' teachings were products of Catholicism, and so on. It was almost saying that Chinese history was nothing more than a Western vassal. This kind of statement was hard to avoid causing resentment among the higher-ups.
In the third year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, with the support of Ao Bai and others, he was sentenced to Lingchi.
In the fourth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, with the intervention of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, Gerbillon and other missionaries were pardoned.
In the fifth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, he passed away.
Afterword#
Actually, I don't really understand what Tea Yan was trying to express with this painting. After all, I was quite nervous when I was searching for information.