Culture and Trade through the Prism of Technical Art History - a study of Chinese export paintings

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a large collection of Chinese export paintings from the 18th and 19th century painted by artisans from Canton and other Chinese ports. These paintings were often sold as souvenirs to Europeans. They typically depict contemporary life in China, illustrating the various trades, costumes, boats, birds, insects and plants, aimed at satisfying foreign clients and their curiosity (and perception) of China and Chinese things. These paintings are valuable for the study of trade and cultural exchange between Britain and China in the 18th and 19th century. There is considerable interest in these paintings amongst researchers studying the economic and cultural history, international trade and cultural exchange of that epoch both within the UK and internationally. A number of museums, libraries and charities in the UK have similar collections. Internationally, similar collections exist in continental Europe, Russia, America and Asia. While the majority were painted as souvenirs for tourists, some were painted for scientific research. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) owns a large collection of early 19th century Chinese watercolour paintings of plants. These were commissioned by the RHS and the Chinese artisans in Canton and Macau were supervised by the RHS representative John Reeves to paint accurately plant species to serve as a plant catalogue. This collection is different from most Chinese export paintings in that they were scientific drawings and well documented by both the RHS's minutes and Reeves' notebooks. There paintings are, therefore, confidently dated. A mixture of both Chinese and European painting techniques and materials were used on some of these paintings. For example, European paper and pigments such as Whatman paper and Prussian blue were used. Technical art history is an emerging field especially for East Asian art. While there is considerable curatorial interest in the historical study of Chinese export paintings, there have been relatively few studies involving scientific analysis. Most institutions do not allow samples to be taken from paper-based objects because of conservation ethics. Consequently, conventional scientific analysis (often destructive) can only be conducted on residuals fallen off the paintings. These studies are therefore rather limited and the results may not even be representative of the paintings on the whole. One of the major problems with the study of paper-based objects is the lack of a wide range of non-invasive instruments to systematically study a large collection of materials. With the development of imaging science and technology, it is increasingly possible to conduct effective scientific examinations non-invasively. This proposal intends to address art historical and conservation research questions related to these paintings through the application of novel imaging technology developed in past research council funded projects in combination with complementary non-invasive spectroscopic techniques. This will be the first time a wide range of complementary non-invasive imaging and spectroscopic techniques are used to study a well-defined collection to address specific questions such as the nature and provenance of the painting material, date and provenance of the paintings, the relation between the painting/drawing techniques and the provenance of the material, the light sensitivity and the state of conservation of the paintings. The project will explore trade and cultural exchanges through insights from technical art history; contribute to the new emerging field of technical art history for East Asian art; demonstrate the usefulness of non-invasive scientific examination for the understanding, enjoyment and preservation of paper-based objects; contribute to future exhibitions of these paintings; and establish a network of interdisciplinary researchers with a broad common interest in the study of paper-based objects.