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Photo courtesy of The Palace Museum
“Emperor Qianlong Enjoying Antiques,” Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–95) hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
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Photo courtesy of The Palace Museum
Ceremonial armor with dragon design, Qing dynasty, 18th century; satin with embroidery, gold thread, copper studs, steel, buttons
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is pulling open the massive doors of the Forbidden City in Beijing and allowing us to visit. The exhibition “Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures From the Palace Museum, Beijing,” opening Oct. 18 and continuing through Jan. 11, 2015, brings to Richmond art never before seen in this country.
The show features more than 200 works created during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, including costumes, furniture, court paintings, religious sculptures and fine decorative arts such as bronzes, lacquerware and jade.
“These works aren’t pulled from the Palace Museum’s galleries,” says Li Jian, the VMFA’s curator for East Asian art. “If you went to Beijing, you might see objects similar to them, but not exactly these.” The presentation of more than 50 imperial court paintings is unprecedented. They were made either by artists who were commissioned or by members of the court. One is by Cixi, a concubine who rose to become China’s last empress.
Visitors will see the Forbidden City projected on a large screen to give them a sense of its architecture and of entering another world. They’ll be greeted by Emperor Qianlong on Horseback, immortalized in ink and color on a hanging scroll.
The galleries are designed to reflect the four interior portions of the Forbidden City, each with its own story. Jian explains, “You enter the Forbidden City from the south, progressively moving forward from the Outer Court — important for ceremonies, you’ll see arms and armor — to the Inner Court, the living quarters, where you’ll see more intimate objects, and the third section would be the gardens, which we’re depicting through paintings of botanicals and landscapes. The last is about religious life,” with sculptures, paintings and screens representing Buddhist and Taoist beliefs. A three-dimensional model of the complex will help visitors get an understanding of the Forbidden City’s size.
In exchange, the VMFA’s collection of Fabergé jewels is traveling to the Palace Museum. This is the first time a U.S. institution has directly loaned work to the museum. Tickets to the “Forbidden City” exhibition are $20. 340-1400 or vmfa.museum.
