Artisanal Luxury and Confucian Statecraft: The Afterlife of Ming Official Carved Lacquer at the Qianlong Court

Abstract

Abstract:This article situates the agency of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795) as an imperial collector as well as his rhetoric and artistic strategies in the politico-cultural appropriation of imperial art collections by focusing on a case study of carved lacquer, the most labor-intensive and time-consuming decorating genre in lacquer industry. More specifically, I investigate the role of Ming (1368–1644) official carved lacquer part of pre-Qing antiquities from the Forbidden City in shaping the material and visual culture in the Qianlong court, in light of Ming and Qing official works as well as the imperial workshop archives. Examined through the text-image interplay, imperial poems inscribed on Ming official lacquerwares with Qianlong’s seals and marks reveal their afterlife in eighteenth-century China. Furthermore, I argue that the Ming visuality and technological exchanges between the court and Suzhou laid the foundation for Qianlong’s patronage under his commissions that, combined with Jiangnan-based craftsmanship, ultimately transformed carved lacquer from one dynastic transitional heritage into an artistic achievement.