Chinese Art in Europe Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chinese Art in europium - Assignment ExampleFour pieces recently on display in the National Museum of china demonstrate these contradicting desires, creating Chinese-inspired European trick that often fails to capture Chinese aesthetic qualities. The desire to copy and reproduce Chinese art in European art is a curious one for much of European history Europe had been relatively assured of cultural superiority over others, especially non-Christian peoples. With mainland China, however, something diverse sees to wear taken place. European missionaries seemed to largely consider Chinese materially and culturally at least Europes equal, and by chance Europes superior (Mungello 85). This gave the Europeans the impulse to copy Chinese art. Furthermore, it was tempting for Europeans to try on to form parallels betwixt Chinese society and European society in order to bolster their get European institutions, such as the French Empire (Thomas 2). These forces led to an effort by Eur opean artists to imitate Chinese style. Yet much of Chinese art was misunderstood by Europeans, or understood all from their world view (Thomas 1). Many pieces of art in the National Museum demonstrate the desire to fit China into a European world view. The Cup with Kinrade Decorations and German Gilded Silver Mounts, for instance, features a highly rhetorical Chinese cup positioned on a gilded German mount, making the whole piece appear something like a massive chalice. Though the style of the bowl and the cup clearly clash fair significantly, it is easy to see the European attempt to integrate Chinese art into a European formation, some(prenominal) making it part of something clearly European (an ornate chalice) and combining its style with European style. The Coffee piling with Pierced Outer Wall, a later piece, shows a more genuine desire of complete imitation, possibly indicating a move away from stress about integrating Chinese culture with European that big businessma n have been associated with Europes ability to exert forms of colonial control on China (Thomas 17). term clearly there was a significant attempt to draw China closer to Europe, and form parallels between Chinese society and European, this does not change the fact that Europeans still showed an intense need to exoticize Chinese art and people. Joachim Kandlers Sweetmeat Stand and Johan Lanzs Inkstand with Exotic Figurines both demonstrate this desire to focus on the exoticness of China. Neither features a particularly Chinese style, both being highly ornate, even grand in a rococo style, though the sweetmeat stand does preserve a few touches of Chinese genuineness (the lilies seem to have a Chinese touch about them). Instead, the focus of each work is on the figures, who are highly stylized in imagined Chinese dress. Each character features a highly ornate conical hat, clearly something Europeans were already associating with China at this point, along with robes of different sor ts that do not seem to really bare a great deal of resemblance to Chinese dress. The clothing, however, is all clearly different from European clothing. The characters themselves are similarly stylized, with overwrought Chinese features. In these pieces, it is clear that the desire to express or imitate Chinese attributes through European art