In 1644, just 24 years after the English Pilgrims arrived on what is today the Massachusetts coast of the United States, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was overthrown by the Manchu, a people from the north who were not Han Chinese. The subsequent establishment of the Qing (pronounced “ching”) Dynasty (1644-1911) signaled the end of Han rule and the installation of foreign rulers in the imperial palace complex, also known as the ‘Forbidden City,’ in Beijing.

Despite their non-Han origins, however, the Qing produced two of the greatest imperial patrons of art in China’s long history: the Kangxi (pronounced “kang-shee”) and the Qianlong (pronounced “chee’en-long”) emperors, the grandfather and grandson who ruled from 1662 to 1722 and from 1736 to 1799, respectively. fine arts magazine

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City now offers visitors a unique opportunity to see a selection of artifacts commissioned by the emperor for the Qianlong Garden. This unprecedented loan by the Palace Museum, Beijing, of 90 art objects, furnishings and other elements makes, The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City, a landmark event (February 1, 2011 – May 1, 2011). The exhibition was first organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Palace Museum, Beijing, and in cooperation with the World Monuments Fund. Peabody Essex Museum’s links to China can be traced back to the last year of the Qianlong emperor’s life; its progenitor, the East India Marine Society, was founded in 1799.

A contemporary of Louis XV, Frederick the Great, George Washington and Ben Franklin, the Qianlong emperor (1711-1799) was also a devout Buddhist who enjoyed contemplative pursuits; a fervent admirer of the arts who enjoyed literature, writing poetry and practicing calligraphy; and a military leader and conqueror who expanded the Chinese empire to its greatest extent.

In 1771, three-and-a-half decades after he came to the throne, he began designing a compound for his retirement. It included a garden that he intended to be a tranquil retreat, first for himself, and later for subsequent Qing rulers. It was not his first garden, but it is the only one that has survived in its original form. It is this garden that we know today as the Qianlong Garden, and which is the focus of ‘The Emperor’s Private Paradise.’

The concept of the garden as a space of contemplation set apart from the world, and which includes buildings as well as elements of nature, the latter often endowed with symbolic meaning, has a long history in China. Thus the Qianlong Garden might include trees, bamboo and other growing things, but it was above all the emperor’s tranquil, private space: a place for reflection; a place for cultivation of the inner self; a retreat; a place for poetry and painting; and a work of art in its own right.

In keeping with Chinese tradition, the Qianlong Garden was designed as a complex of architectural structures and spaces organized on a longitudinal axis and enclosed by a wall.  The buildings were placed either perpendicular or parallel to that axis, and the entire complex covered an area of a little more than two acres. As befitted the art-loving ruler of what was then the world’s most prosperous nation, the utmost care was lavished on both the structures and their furnishings, which were fabricated from the finest materials and which demonstrated the highest quality and craftsmanship.

The emperor, however, never took up residence in the compound he had so carefully designed. Instead, he chose to live the last few years of his life elsewhere in the Forbidden City. The Qing Dynasty came to an end in 1911; in 1925, the Forbidden City became the Palace Museum. Over the years, the roofs and exteriors of the structures in the Qianlong Garden were maintained, but as decades turned into centuries, the building interiors fell into disrepair. Nevertheless, unlike other gardens the emperor had designed, the Qianlong Garden remained intact, escaping both modification and destruction.

In 2001, conservation of one building interior in the Garden began: that of the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service (Juanqinzhai). The work was undertaken as a partnership between the Palace Museum of Beijing and the World Monuments Fund, a New-York based organization that specializes in the preservation of significant cultural sites around the world. Completion of conservation work on the remaining interiors of the Qianlong Garden is anticipated for 2019. Most of the artifacts on display in the “The Emperor’s Private Paradise” exhibition come from nine of the structures in the garden complex and were commissioned by the Qianlong emperor.

The ‘The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City’ occupies the Peabody Essex’s six Special Exhibition galleries. It does not recreate specific rooms or spaces in the Qianlong Garden complex. Instead, each gallery presents a selection of furniture, paintings and other artifacts grouped around a specific theme: “Ruler, Conqueror, Connoisseur,” “Raising Mountains,” “Pursuing Virtue,” “Extending Delight,” “Cultivating Spiritual Harmony,” and “Assuring Longevity.”

Visitors enter the exhibition to find themselves face-to-face with one side of a long sixteen-panel screen decorated with bamboo, plants and flowers rendered in gold on a black ground.  The Qianlong emperor particularly admired the opposite side of the screen, which shows 16 luohan, or disciples of the Buddha known in Sanskrit as arhat.  Their distorted figures are rendered in jade, which contrasts strikingly with the rich black lacquered background. The stark beauty of the screen, which was a special favorite of the emperor, sets the tone for the exhibition, whose meticulously crafted objects are notable for their exceptional quality and magnificent workmanship.

The sixteen-panel screen also serves as a partition around which visitors must move to advance through the gallery. This is a device that is repeated throughout the exhibition, and it hints at the gradual progression and disclosure that are characteristic of a Chinese garden. While providing additional display surfaces for artifacts, the partitions also serve to restrict views, ensuring that a room and its contents are never visible in entirety from a single point. Instead, new views unfold as visitors round the partitions and make their way from one space to the next.

The first gallery introduces both the man who commissioned the Qianlong Garden and the Garden itself. A formal portrait shows the Qianlong emperor dressed in an imperial court robe and seated on a throne. A quote written on a nearby wall – which, like the imperial robe, is painted yellow, a color reserved for the emperor, the empress and the empress dowager – provides a more revealing glimpse into the emperor’s inner self. “Every emperor or king … should have extensive grounds to stroll in and lovely vistas to enjoy. If he has such a place, he will be able to cultivate his mind and refine his emotions.”

To help visitors understand the layout and the physical appearance of the actual garden in Beijing, a list of the buildings in the garden, a plan, and a bird’s-eye view of the complex appear on a nearby wall. At the far end of the room, a throne is flanked by two tall fans. Behind it is a tall throne surround screen which also functions as a display case; it was originally in the building known as the Belvedere of Viewing Achievements (Fuwangge). Like many of the wooden objects in the exhibition, it is made of zitan, a precious tropical hardwood. Visitors interested in conservation and in the “before and after” appearances of artifacts in the exhibition will want to remember to look at the panel on conservation in the last gallery. There they may view a photograph of the screen as it appeared at the start of conservation.

Visitors are also introduced to an essential feature of Chinese gardens: rocks and rockeries. Given the Chinese garden’s role as a microcosm of nature, rocks were often valued as miniature representations of mountains as well as for their irregular shapes and textures. A lingbi stone, mounted on a pedestal illustrates one way that a rock might be displayed and admired.

Another expression of appreciation of irregular shapes in nature appears in the display of rootwood furniture. The couch bed, footstool, and chair, which come from the Pavilion of the Purification Ceremony (Xishangting) near the southwest corner of the Qianlong Garden, demonstrate how gnarled wood and roots of trees could be shaped into functional objects valued for their natural beauty. In China, the attraction of rustic forms dates back centuries, and rootwood experienced considerable appeal during the Qing Dynasty.

Moving on to the next gallery, visitors encounter in the initial partition a cut-out that brings to mind the openings of various shapes that so often puncture Chinese garden walls. The theme of the gallery is “Pursuing Virtue.” A design of pine, bamboo and plum blossom motifs ornament a zitan throne, a pair of screens and a pair of stands. The three plants, which remain green throughout the winter or bloom in early spring, are known collectively as the Three Friends. This specific grouping of furniture comes from the Three Friends Bower (Sanyouxuan). Situated on the eastern side of the Qianglong Garden, the small structure offered the emperor a contemplative space well suited to the writing of poetry, which was an essential skill for a gentleman-scholar and one of the emperor’s acknowledged interests.

Nearby, a hanging panel from the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service (Juanqinzhai) shows plum blossoms bursting from the branches of an ancient tree. The design is crafted from an array of precious materials, including sandalwood, zitan, jade, lapis lazuli and glass.

A display case in the same gallery contains a brush, a jade brush pot, a jade brush rest and other tools essential to the practice of calligraphy. Valued as an art form, calligraphy represents far more than mere handwriting. Two touch screens allow visitors to trace Chinese characters using a brush and interactive black ink.

In the next gallery of the exhibition, “Extending Delight.” A gilt copper and enamel mechanical clock measuring 30 inches in diameter, with hours indicated by black roman numerals, hangs at the end of the passage. European mechanical clocks were introduced to China in the late sixteenth century and quickly became a source of fascination. The Qianlong emperor was an ardent admirer of new technologies and artistic techniques introduced from other parts of the world, and the objects exhibited in this fourth gallery reflect this passion. They testify not only to the ability of Chinese artists to master new techniques and methods, but also to marry them to Chinese tradition.

Also of interest is the emperor’s fondness for mirrors and illusions. A table screen from the Building for Enjoying Lush Scenery (Cuishanglou) features a reverse-glass painting incorporating a technique known as verre églomisé, which produces a mirror effect. The painting is mounted Chinese-style in a wooden screen and shows a European couple in a landscape, a subject matter familiar to eighteenth-century European rococo art. The piece was probably given to the emperor by an official in Guangzhou. The port of Guangzhou, which Westerners generally knew as Canton, was the center of Western trade with China prior to the 1840s.

Also on view is a large, rare mural from the Bower of Purest Jade (Yucuixuan).  Executed in ink and colors on paper by a number of artists, including Yao Wenhan, a favorite painter of the Qianlong emperor, it depicts a room with women and a handful of lively children at the New Year. In rendering the altar table, wall, partitions, floor and ceiling of the room, the artists made skillful use of such techniques as Western perspective and trompe-l’œil. On the wall beyond the altar table and on the partitions and door panels, they painted and signed Chinese-style landscapes, creating, in effect, paintings within a painting. Once again, a single work demonstrates both familiarity with traditional Chinese subject matter and facility with Chinese and Western techniques.

An informative video shows some of the artifacts, including the mural, undergoing conservation in Beijing.

Not all of the foreign techniques that the emperor admired were of Western origin. A pair of black lacquered wooden cabinets, which like the mural come from the Bower of Purest Jade (Yucuixuan), are ornamented with gilding in a technique associated with Japan.

“Cultivating Spiritual Harmony,” focuses on artifacts related to the Qianlong emperor’s devout practice of a form of Tibetan Buddhism. On the initial partition is a shrine in the form of a rare hanging panel that comes from the Building for Enjoying Lush Scenery (Cuishanglou).  It combines elements of both Tibetan and Chinese art, and features a painting on silk that incorporates painted and gilt clay figures. The painting shows the colorful sky and landscape of a Buddhist realm and is punctured by a number of circular niches. An imperial temple dominates the center of the composition; in the center of the temple, there appears a large niche shaped like a lotus petal. A golden figure of the Qianlong emperor as the Bodhisattva Manjusri occupies the niche. In a smaller niche directly above is shown Rolpay Dorje, the emperor’s religious guide, and in a round niche further above is the figure of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Small painted and gilt clay figures representing other teachers, Buddhas and deities occupy the remaining niches of the panel.

Further along, a mandala is displayed on a pedestal.  Mandalas, the geometric charts that serve as symbolic images of the universe and are used in certain Buddhist religious practices, are typically executed on a flat surface and are two-dimensional. This mandala, however, is a striking piece of cloisonné with a circular base that is rimmed in gold.

Advancing beyond the mandala, visitors encounter a calligraphic inscription from the Supreme Chamber of Cultivating Harmony (Yanghe Jingshe) written by the Qianlong emperor in 1777; it is one of his own poems. “I work hard at present and I wait for the future when I can roam at leisure,” reads the translation of one line. The paper on which the poem was written is decorated with gold motifs and was made specifically for the court.

Of particular interest to Western observers is an exhibition that speaks to “Assuring Longevity,” a theme that applied not only to the Qianlong emperor but to his garden and its future as well. As the artifacts in the exhibition show, the emperor appreciated a wide variety of art forms and decorative techniques. A number of these techniques are summarized in a zitan throne ornamented in jade, semi-precious stones and lacquer. Among the featured decors is bamboo inner skin. The technique, which is often associated with the Qianlong era, involves painstakingly removing the inner skin from bamboo.

Opposite the throne, a computer-generated video presentation simulates a visit to the interior of the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service (Juanqinzhai) and enables visitors to imagine moving through it.

Visitors wishing to learn more about the restoration process of the Qianlong Garden will want to look at the photo display along one wall of this same gallery. The first photograph shows the throne surround screen, now on display in the first gallery of the exhibition, as it appeared on location in the actual Qianlong Garden prior to the start of restoration. Shortly beyond the photographs, the exhibition concludes with a large carved zitan window.

When Nancy Berliner, the exhibition curator and Curator of Chinese Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, was asked what she would like visitors to take away from “The Emperor’s Private Paradise,” she replied, “The concept of creating a place where you can focus on your own higher pursuit.”

It is this higher undertaking that the exquisitely beautiful objects now gracing the Metropolitan Museum of Art were designed to serve.

by Susan Schopp, Contributing Writer

The Emperor’s Private Paradise: ‘Treasures from the Forbidden City’ runs until  May 1, 2011. The galleries are wheel-chair accessible and are served by both a stairway and an elevator. A full-color catalog is available for purchase. The exhibition travels then travels to the Milwaukee Art Museum (June 11-September 12, 2011).

Susan E. Schopp is an independent scholar specializing in the shipping of the Canton trade, c. 1700-1842. She holds a Diplôme de recherches in East Asian art history and a Diplôme d’études supérieures in museum studies from the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. Her current research focuses on chop boats. In her spare time she is a member of the volunteer crew of the full-size, fully operational reproduction East India ship Friendship of Salem.