Discover the new exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco: " The Forbidden City, Court Life of the Emperors and Empresses of China "
In 2001, the Grimaldi Forum attended "the First Emperor China" through a memorable exhibition… Summer 2017, place at the last imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qing (1644 - 1911) to celebrate its good, tastes and grandeur.
«The Forbidden City in Monaco. Life of the Court of the Emperors and Empresses of China, which has been assigned jointly to Mr. Jean-Paul DESROCHES, Honorary General Curator of Heritage and Mr. WANG Yuegong, Director of the Department of Palace Arts at the Imperial Palace Museum, will gather a selection of nearly 250 exceptional pieces, from the former Chinese Sovereign Palace, as well as loans from the former Chinese Sovereign Palace. major European and American collections (Cernuschi Museum, Louvre Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington). It is at the heart of an emblematic place, rooted in collective memory and rich in priceless heritage, which the public will be invited to enter.
The Forbidden City is one of the most prestigious palatiaux ensembles and the most visited site in the world with some 10 million entries per year. Both palace and museum, it is around him that the new capital of Beijing has ordered itself. The Forbidden City came out of the will of the 3rd of the emperors of the Ming and was built with a single jet between 1406 and 1420. It will become the cradle of the power of the Mandchous emperors over nearly three centuries.
The personality of the Qing emperors is at the centre of this project, especially the Souverains sovereigns (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795), who hear to be of Chinese culture. As the representative of Heaven on earth, the emperor, the "Son of Heaven", is an omnipotent, both military leader, religious leader and head of letters. The public will discover insignia testimonies linked to these different functions: portraits, trappings costumes, furniture, precious objects, scientific instruments… some of which are among "national treasures". In the tradition of the Manchu people, whose powerful army of "Eight Banners" will become masters of China from 1644, the military conquests of the Qing emperors will also be represented through various objects and engravings illustrating their victorious campaigns.
Under the reign of the Qing, the beauty comes back to culture. Illustrating the official taste at one of the peak periods in the history of Chinese civilization, the various forms of expression of Chinese art, which at that time have a well-known influence on the West, will be highlighted: the art of the paintbrush through calligraphy and painting, the universe of decorative arts, with a porcelain firm and a cabinet cabinet, music and opera. The excellence and refinement of this art have left a legacy still very present today, as will be demonstrated by the impressive landscape screen of Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), one of the most legendary Chinese painters of the twentieth century.
Conceived as a visit to the halls of the Palace to the gardens of the Forbidden City, the journey walks through the emblematic places of the city-palace (Temple of the Sky, the throne hall, Buddhist temple, temple of the ancestors, tea pavilion) plunging the public into a journey at the heart of a plurimillénaire civilization.
The exhibition's design will address this subject of heritage in a modern and didactic way thanks, inter alia, to the presence of two models of monumental temples (China Red Sandalwood Museum, Beijing), unpublished audiovisual archives and a visit to the heart of the Palace of the Forbidden Cité.
More info
Grimaldi Forum
Open daily from 10 a. m. to 20 p. m.
Night on Thursdays until 22 p. m.
www.grimaldiforum.com
