The Art Institute of Chicago

The Emperor Sailing from The Story of the Emperor of China

Wool, silk, and silvered- and-gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk, slit and double interlocking tapestry weave with some areas of 2:2 plain interlacings of silvered-and-gilt-metal weftsAfter a design by Guy-Louis Vernansal (French, 1648–1729) and others Woven at the Manufacture Royale de Beauvais under the direction of Pierre and Etienne Filleul (codirectors, 1711–22) France, Beauvais/1716/22

Description

This tapestry is part of a suite that portrays scenes from the lives of the Chinese emperor Shunzhi (r. 1644–61) and his son, the emperor Kangxi (r. 1661–1722). The Emperor Sailing shows the elder emperor seated in a ceremonial dragon boat as it pulls away from a quay. Members of the imperial family and their attendants watch the launch from underneath an arcade, in close proximity to a crane and a tortoise that together symbolize their well-wishes for the monarch. Philippe Behagle, then director of the Beauvais tapestry workshop, commissioned the design of this tapestry suite in the mid-1680s to cater to the French court’s increasing fascinating with China. As an allegory of good governance, the series makes manifest the parallels, first propounded by French Jesuit missionaries in China, between Louis XIV and Kangxi.

Provenance

Commissioned Franz Ludwig, Count Palatine von Pfalz-Neuburg (1664-1732), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (1694-1732); either bequeathed as personal property or by succession (with two other tapestries) to Clemens August Wittelsbach (1700-1761), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (1732-61), Schloss Ellingen, near Nuremberg (the Teutonic Order’s seat); by 1732; transferred with Schloss Ellingen and its contents to Maximilian I of Bavaria (r. 1805-1825), April 24, 1809, by Napoleon’s decree dissolving the Teutonic Order; ceded with Schloss Ellingen and its contents to Karl Philipp, Prince von Wrede (1767-1838), 1825. Sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Dec.10, 1948, lot 77. Akram Ojjeh (1918-1991), by descent to his widow, Nahed Ojjeh; sold Christie’s, Monaco, Dec. 12, 1999, lot 21, to an American private collection; sold Sotheby’s, New York, Oct. 24-25, 2002, lot 780 to S. Franses (dealer), London and New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2007.

Dimensions

385.8 × 355 cm (151 3/4 × 139 3/4 in.)

Source

The Art Institute of Chicago

Movement / Period

Baroque

Accession No

189775

Official Citations

[The Art Institute of Chicago Official Record][Full Resolution Image]

Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of After a design by Guy-Louis Vernansal (French, 1648–1729) and others Woven at the Manufacture Royale de Beauvais under the direction of Pierre and Etienne Filleul (codirectors, 1711–22) France, Beauvais

Baroque • Beauvais • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries

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