Asian and Italian perspectives in Qing Court painting: making space for Agrarian labor imagery

Abstract

With arrival of Matteo Ricci’s in China in 1582, Chinese elite were confronted with a new mode of representation based on the Italian Renaissance rediscovery of geometric perspective. My paper looks at types of imagery that centers on and responds to the Pictures of Tilling and Weaving. Initially created in the 12th-century, they were revitalized by the Kangxi emperor by 1696. Geometric perspective was incorporated in his imperial reworking of scenes that represent the weaving of silk and the cultivation of rice. These images constitute the first sustained imperial application of geometric perspective, constituting an integration of Asian and European painting techniques and science. In 1715, Giuseppe Castliglione arrived at Kangxi’s court. In my interpretation this artist consolidated a new hybrid style that I referred to as “controlled axonometric perspective.” This became an alternative mode of representation, not wholly European or Asian, but Qing. Formulated during Kangxi’s era, this style became an authorizing mode of representation of activities associated with agricultural productivity in the Yongzheng emperor’s reign. Through analysis of paintings and primary texts, this paper explores the appeal of the Italian mode of representation for agrarian labor imagery of the early Qing court, investigating its continuity and modification to elucidate its ideological import.