Emperor Qianlong ruled for sixty years (1736–1795), during China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty. The emperor is best known to art historians as a collector who amassed the largest collection of art known up to that point in China. His passion for collecting extended to paintings, porcelain, bronzes, jades, writing implements, and rare books.
The 10,000-square-foot Splendors of China’s Forbidden City exhibition l features a series of environments based on actual palace settings. Visitors can view the elaborate gold-lacquered Dragon Throne from which the emperor ruled; the desk where he worked, the table where he dined, and the private chamber of one of the emperor’s wives. Objects on view never before seen outside China include the emperor’s funeral throne and spirit tablet, a monolithic carved jade boulder, the five-foot high gold stupa commissioned by Qianlong to commemorate his mother, and eight paintings by the great Jesuit court artist Giuseppe Castiglione, including portraits of Qianlong and his first wife and empress, Xiaoxian.
Dallas Museum of Art Web Site
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