Читать книгу Imperial Illusions - Kristina Kleutghen - Страница 23

I.4Detail of figures in garden, Spring’s Peaceful Message scenic illusion (figure I.2).

Unless one is near enough to this painting to touch it, however, there are no visible brushstrokes, particularly in the area that depicts the floor, walls, and ceiling. This lack runs counter to essential aesthetic values in the traditional Chinese brush arts, which valorize the artist’s visible presence in his brushwork. However, this erasure of the artists’ identities as well as of the technology of representation perfectly suited the collaborative and therefore typically anonymous working processes of the Qing imperial painting academy (Huayuanchu). Scenic illusions were uniquely produced by the Wish-Fulfilling Studio (Ruyiguan), the separate elite branch of the painting academy where the European missionary artists worked alongside the emperor’s best Chinese and Manchu painters.²⁷ The Wish-Fulfilling Studio’s archives (hereafter abbreviated RYG) are therefore the primary documentary source for these paintings, recording commissions, requested changes, installation locations, artists’ identities, and more that have otherwise been