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Article: The emperor looks west.(Qianlong emperor's fascination with Western cultures)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- March 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The eighteenth-century Qianlong emperor was one of China's greatest art patrons. Just as he strove to expand the territory under his control, so too did he endeavor to bring the arts of many foreign cultures into his domain. The premier artisans in his imperial workshops--hailing from Europe, India, and Central Asia, as well as China--created fine and truly unique works of art that blended and balanced the cultures and aesthetics of the period. Under the Qianlong emperor, who followed a path set by his grandfather the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722), European women with blond hair and blue eyes stared out from glossy enameled surfaces (see Fig. 3), mechanical clocks chimed ...