Читать книгу Imperial Illusions - Kristina Kleutghen - Страница 19

I.3Giuseppe Castiglione, Spring’s Peaceful Message,

c. 1727–28. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 68.8 × 40.6 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing, Gu5361.

The successive Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns define the High Qing era (1661–1799), which is often considered the golden age of the Manchu Qing dynasty.¹⁵ Scholars generally agree that some time during Yongzheng’s reign, Castiglione pictured the special relationship between the ruler and his intended successor in the small version of Spring’s Peaceful Message, a unique visual allusion to the future of the dynasty.¹⁶ Against a brilliant blue mineral background that suggests a cloudless sky, a device common to European but not Chinese painting (and notably not repeated in the scenic illusion), the two men are again dressed in scholars’ robes, and Yongzheng is passing Qianlong a branch of blossoming plum. Although the garden is only barely suggested through a decorative rock, a flowering tree, and tall green bamboo on slightly grassy ground, these few natural elements create mass and volume with subtle shading and highlights in a largely European manner.