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

维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆（Victoria & Albert Museum）收藏了大量18世纪和19世纪的中国出口画作，这些画作是由广州和其他中国港口的工匠绘制的。这些画经常作为纪念品卖给欧洲人。它们典型地描绘了中国的当代生活，描绘了各种行业、服装、船只、鸟类、昆虫和植物，旨在满足外国客户对中国和中国事物的好奇心（和感知）。这些画作对于研究18、19世纪英国和中国之间的贸易和文化交流具有重要价值。在英国和国际上研究那个时代的经济和文化历史，国际贸易和文化交流的研究人员对这些画有相当大的兴趣。英国的许多博物馆、图书馆和慈善机构都有类似的藏品。在国际上，类似的收藏在欧洲大陆、俄罗斯、美洲和亚洲都有。虽然大多数是作为游客的纪念品，但也有一些是为了科学研究而画的。英国皇家园艺学会（RHS）收藏了大量19世纪早期中国植物水彩画。这些是受英国皇家园艺学会委托，在香港皇家园艺学会代表约翰·里夫斯的监督下，广东和澳门的中国工匠准确地绘制植物物种，作为植物目录。这个收藏与大多数中国出口绘画不同，因为它们是科学的绘画，并且在RHS的会议记录和Reeves的笔记本中都有详细的记录。因此，这些画可以确定年代。其中一些画作混合了中国和欧洲的绘画技巧和材料。例如，使用了欧洲的纸张和颜料，如Whatman纸和普鲁士蓝。技术艺术史是一个新兴的领域，特别是对东亚艺术而言。虽然策展人对中国出口绘画的历史研究很感兴趣，但涉及科学分析的研究相对较少。出于保护伦理的考虑，大多数机构不允许从纸质物品上采集样本。因此，传统的科学分析（通常是破坏性的）只能对从画作上脱落的残留物进行分析。因此，这些研究是相当有限的，结果甚至可能不能代表整个绘画。研究纸质物体的主要问题之一是缺乏广泛的非侵入性仪器来系统地研究大量材料。随着影像科学技术的发展，无创进行有效的科学检查越来越成为可能。本提案旨在通过应用在过去研究委员会资助的项目中开发的新型成像技术，结合互补的非侵入性光谱技术，解决与这些绘画相关的艺术史和保护研究问题。这将是第一次使用广泛的互补非侵入性成像和光谱技术来研究明确定义的收藏品，以解决具体问题，如绘画材料的性质和来源，绘画的日期和来源，绘画/绘画技术与材料来源之间的关系，绘画的光敏性和保存状态。该项目将从技术艺术史的角度探讨贸易和文化交流；为东亚艺术技术艺术史这一新兴领域做出贡献；展示非侵入性科学检查对理解、欣赏和保存纸质物品的有用性；为这些画作的未来展览做出贡献；并建立一个跨学科研究人员的网络，他们对基于纸张的物体的研究有广泛的共同兴趣。

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.