January 20-April 21

“Chinese” Decorative Design (Chinoiserie), plate 3, 1736

“Chinese” Decorative Design (Chinoiserie),
from Cinquieme Livre de Figures
et Ornements Chinois,
plate 1, 1736

“Chinese” Decorative Design (Chinoiserie),
from Quatrieme Livre de Formes
Ornées de Rocailles Cartels
Figures Oyseaux et Dragons Chinois,
plate 2, 1736

“Chinese” Decorative Design (Chinoiserie),
from Quatrieme Livre de Formes
Ornées de Rocailles Cartels
Figures Oyseaux et Dragons Chinois,
plate 4, 1736

 

FRANCOIS-ANTOINE AVELINE, French, 1691 - 1743;
after JEAN MONDON THE YOUNGER,
French, active 1736 - 1745
“Chinese” Decorative Design (Chinoiserie)
from Quatrieme Livre de Formes Ornées
de Rocailles Cartels Figures
Oyseaux et Dragons Chinois
etching, hand-colored, 1736
Ackland Fund, 63.43.3-8

The Chinese phoenix is transformed into imaginary monsters here. A Chinese man with a broad-brimmed hat is looking down the monsters. The fantasy about China became a strange combination of a serene divinity and scary monsters.

Masumi Ninomiya