FOREWORD
This catalogue introduces one of the most precious collections
of Chinese carpets in existence: the Silk and Metal Carpets made
during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and in particular those dating
from the beginning of the Qianlong period (1735-1796) until the
brief reign of the last Xuantong emperor (1908-1911). In the catalogue,
the presentation of these carpets is preceded, according to classical
Chinese composition, by an essay about the Forbidden City, for which
they were destined, and by a fantastic tale.
The Qing, who were of Manchu origin, were followers of shamanic
as well as Tibetan Buddhist rites, and desired to surround themselves
at court by the images and symbols that they cherished. The design
of the carpets therefore reflects a precise cosmological scheme:
the diagram of the five elements; fire, water, earth, wood and metal,
represented by either botanical or animal images which indicate
at the same time the four cardinal points and the center showing
the Middle Kingdom. The material used in these carpets was silk,
the very essence of China. In rarer pieces, gold, silver and copper
were inserted, three metals to which therapeutic virtues were attributed.
To a certain extent, there is a correlation existing between the
esthetic grammar and the principles of Chinese textile art, and
those belonging to poetry. The three models of expression that are
inherent in the art of composition: fu, exposition, bi, comparison,
and xing, evocation, are the very same models used by the master
weavers in carrying out their creations.
Like the poets, they succeeded in expressing their sentiments and
in rendering them objective by weaving them into the warp and the
weft of the carpets (fu), putting to work their knowledge of the
hidden properties of the materials and the comparison of the techniques
(bi), and by the evocation of the imaginary by way of representation
of myths and symbols (xing).
The reading of the carpet relies precisely on the revelation of
the invisible world by which the visible one is surrounded, as are
the theories of Chinese landscape paintings whose significance is
realized through the repetition of descriptions and images. These
landscapes can be seen, visited or lived within. The same is true
for the carpet.
The person who is capable of fully enjoying the carpet is that same
person ”…who succeeds in entering into the subtle and
invisible dimensions, those which conceal sentiment, the soul of
the original elements. He who succeeds in crossing the primordial
oceans, in seeing the dragon in the act of rising and the phoenix
dancing in the heavens, or he who is capable of smelling the perfume
of the mulberry that has nurtured the silk worm, the wind that has
blown through the cotton fields, the hands that have gathered the
cotton, have spun it and have woven it…”
(L’Esthétique dans la création textile chinoise,
Paris 1923)
Aside from beauty itself, which constitutes an essential element
in the significance of the work, the imperial Silk and Metal carpet
represents an object of faith and veneration, even as it is not
a work of strictly religious art.
Beauty and esthetic expression in court life were subordinate to
spiritual contents and to the exaltation of power. In interior decoration
as well as in carpets, dragons and phoenixes, symbols of the emperor
and of the empress, make their repeated appearances, and with them,
all those images by which Chinese art and Chinese conceptualizations
are dominated. By interacting with these symbols the sovereigns
could then manifest their role as mediators of the cosmic order,
between earthly existence and the celestial forces.
Knotted into the carpets is a multitude of fabulous birds and animals,
such as lions and tigers, to which profound allegorical and mysterious
meanings are attributed. The artistic contents and the esthetic
value of these images should not be evinced by way of their representation
of the animal world but rather in the world of myths and magic of
which these prodigious creatures are emblems. In these symbols the
primordial vitality is preserved, and through them antique tradition
lives on.
Among all these figures, the one which stands out most is that of
the flower. The carpets presented in this volume share a quite interesting,
if not determinant, characteristic with that form of Chinese poetry
that is composed in observance of the ci style.
This style of poetry, whose imagery calls for a description in minute
details, is based on the exposition of a single idea. Likewise,
the dominant image present in the carpet is that of the flower.
The flower theme is symbolic of the relationship with the absolute:
the very essence of nature. If the cosmos is the manifestation of
the creative energy, every tree, every plant, every flower is the
concentration of the divine energy. There are, however, flowers
which more than others represent the absolute, the illumination
and those forces that are not otherwise describable: the flower
of the pomegranate and that of the lotus.
According to some traditions, the Great Mother goddess in her emergence
from the sea, assumes the semblance of the lotus flower. A lotus
flower that opens out upon the surface of the water is the symbol
of the first manifestation of the supreme being; it is the gateway
to the womb of the universe, which is represented as a thousand-petalled
golden flower. In Hindu tradition, it is the lotus flower which
opens to give birth to Brahma, the Creator. Taoism, in an initiatory
text where the way to the immortality of body and soul is taught
to the believer, associates the Golden Flower with the elixir of
long life.
The different varieties of the lotus flower symbolize for the Buddhist
different spiritual states. The white lotus is the image of the
state of absolute mental purity and of the spiritual perfectness
of Buddha. Its eight petals indicate the eight points along the
path of the doctrine. The pink lotus is representative of Buddha,
and among the esoteric sects it is reserved for the highest expression
of the divinities. The red lotus stands for the great compassion
of Buddha, as well as of the bodhisattva for all living beings.
The blue lotus is never represented in full bloom, in view of the
fact that its center is not visible, as is true of the supreme intelligence.
In yoga the levels which must be overcome in order to reach nirvana
are indicated by lotus flowers which vary in color and petals and
which are arranged along a central axis, above them the supreme
white lotus with its thousand petals which contain all the sounds
and all the forces of the universe; existence in its state of perfect
purity, of light which is infinite, immutable and formless; the
site of nirvana, the state of abolition of all passion and desire,
for those who have achieved the status of perfect beatitude, freeing
themselves from the bonds of samsara, from the succession of birth
and rebirth.
Almost all the superior divinities of Buddhism are shown in the
standing position or seated upon flowering lotuses. This flower,
a support which symbolizes the state of total purity of the divinity,
has numerous petals arranged in various rows, with the bottom-most
row turned upside down to indicate the plurality of the universes
over which the represented divinity exercises his reign. When the
bodhisattva are seated with a dangling leg, their feet are held
up by a lotus in memory of the legend according to which these flowers
bloomed at every step taken by Buddha; enlightenment is thus associated
with a carpet of flowers.
A carpet bearing the lotus flower motif becomes in itself a transcendent
vehicle between earth and heaven: the meditation carpets in the
monasteries of Tibet, the flying carpets of oriental fables, the
imperial carpets of The Forbidden City, in the knots that compose
them, they reaffirm the sacred bond existing between man and nature.
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