When Europe tried to build Chinese Architecture

[Music] beginning in 1661 The Chateau of Versailles would be transformed by Louis XIV into an immense and extravagant Palace which eventually became the sea to his court and government making it the de facto capital of France the building had begun as a small hunting lodge built by his father but as for Sai grew Louis XIV felt the need to construct a retreat where it could get away from the arduous pump of life in the court and pursue his affair with this mistress Madame de Montes Palm the result was a remarkable pleasure Pavilion inspired by accounts of the Far East composed of a central building flanked by four smaller structures it was decorated with white and blue ceramic tiles made in Imitation of Chinese porcelain continuing this theme all of the Interior from tiles to woodwork stucco and even Furniture have been painted white and blue behind the main building was a formal Garden using an Innovative system on flowers buried in pots which could be replaced very quickly this allowed fresh flowers grown in hot houses to be put out at any time including the middle of winter and enabled the decorative scheme of perfumed and exotic flowers to be changed during the course of a single day built in 1617 the structure was located on Water once in the village of Trianon and became known as the trianone de porcelain but before long cracks began to appear in the king's relationship with montespa as well as in the fragile decorative tiles of the pressure Pavilion he had dedicated to her so in 1687 he ordered that the structure being demolished and replaced by a more durable building of marble this is what's known as the grand Triana despite having stood for a mere 17 years however the Train on the porcelain would have a long lasting impact as it marked the first major example of shinoa serene Europeans had long been fascinated by stories of an immensely rich and exotic Empire located far to the East and as Chinese luxury goods like porcelain silk and lacquerware began to flow to the West beginning in the 16th century local designers started imitating and adapting the decorative forms found on them for a wide variety of objects these limitations later became known as shinua Serene French for chinese-like and following the example of Louis XIV Sportsland Pavilion the style was increasingly used for interior schemes and even entire buildings before long no court residence was complete without at least a Chinese room and the Chinese summer houses Pavilions and Follies began to spring up in the surrounding parks and Gardens but as Western knowledge of China was still extremely limited these buildings tended to rely on a fair amount of imagination and represent a European dream of a distant and wondrous Place rather than an accurate reproduction of Chinese architecture reaching the height of its popularity in the mid-18th century shinwasri became closely associated with Rococo and was characterized by exuberant decoration asymmetry and a focus on lightheartedness and fun as a result the style was often considered to be frivolous and only suitable for less serious spaces like Gardens even so shinwas Left Behind many spectacular buildings and makes up a fascinating chapter in history of European architecture here I put together some noteworthy examples [Music] 75 years after the construction of Louis xiv's porcelain Pavilion Frederick the great of Prussia was building his own Royal Retreats on the outskirts of Potsdam near Berlin man does a place of relaxation rather than a seed of power this Rococo style Summer Palace was named San Jose meaning without worries or Carefree in French following the completion of the main building in 1747 Frederick turned his attention to the creation of a surrounding Park which he adorned with the numerous small temples and Follies one of them being an imaginative interpretation of a Chinese house [Music] this structure was modeled on the Meson de trefle a 1738 Pavilion built for the Duke of Lorraine in the garden of his Palace of Linville its unusual travel shape was inherited by the Chinese house at sanso scene designed by The Garden architect Johann Godfrey buring it was given a curved tent-like copper roof supported at the entrances by four gilded Sunstone pillars made in the shape of palm trees gilded statues of Chinese figures eating drinking or playing music or placed all along the walls and are also found sitting at the feet of the columns one of them with an open parasol can even be found on top of the Coppola crowning the roof the central chamber below leads into three small cabinets and features a painted ceiling with the naturally scenes of Oriental men and women surrounded by parrots monkeys and Buddhas [Music] construction of the building began in 1755 but it stalled during the Seven Years War and was only completed nine years later another xinwasri Pavilion known as the Dragon House was built by Frederick in the 1770s and was made to resemble a Chinese pagoda it stands in the Royal Vineyard at klausberg just North of San Jose Park and was intended as living quarters for the local eventner the Prussian King had been stimulated to make the second Chinese inspired building but the publications of a British architect called Sir William Chambers in his youth Chambers had actually traveled to China on three occasions and after establishing its architectural practice in London in the 1750s he released a book about the buildings furniture and clothing he'd seen in the Far East he was soon appointed architectural tutor to the Prince of Wales later George III and started working for the prince's mother Augusta she had him design a several fanciful Garden buildings at Q including temples aru and Arch and are now lost chinoiseri-style Pavilion known as the house of Confucius the two-story octagonal structure overlooked a lake and on the walls and ceilings were paintings related to the historical events of the Philosopher's lifetime crowning work of his time at Kew Gardens however was the great Pagoda built in 1761. located at the southern end of the gardens it was framed by two other structures which also Drew an exotic non-western Traditions the Alhambra and the mosque standing 50 meters tall it consisted of 10 octagonal stories each slightly diminishing in diameter and height and was decorated with a total of 18 sculptures of dragons the top was gilded and the chambers described how the building was originally covered in quote a kind of thin glass of various colors which reduces a most dazzling reflection in the 1763 Chambers published an account with the structures at Q which included a lavish description and three accompanying illustrations of the Pagoda suggesting that he was extremely proud of this building even though he is mostly known for Designing classical architecture on the morning of the 24th of July 1753 a 120 shot cannon salute could be heard thundering from the Royal Palace of rottenham near Stockholm this marked the beginning of the birthday celebrations for the 34 year old Queen Luisa alwika of Sweden the festivities lasted the entire day and in the afternoon the king invited her for Promenade in the park where she found a surprise gift in a letter to her mother Luisa Rhodes quote he brought me to one side of the garden and I was surprised to suddenly be part of a fairy tale for the king had built a Chinese Castle the most beautiful one can see she continues to describe how the entire court had dressed up in Chinese clothes as well as her eldest son the seven-year-old Crown Prince Gustav who wrote her a poem and presented her with a golden key into the building having been prefabricated in Stockholm this log structure known as the Chinese Pavilion had been transported to the Palace in secret and quickly put up before the queen could notice a thing however it wasn't built to last and within a decade it had become dilapidated a new larger and more durable Pavilion was constructed in its stand which was finished in 1769 and still stands today heavily influenced by French Rococo it consists of four smaller structures and the main building connected to its wings by a series of curved rooms inside the Pavilion is decorated with Chinese inspired locally produced furniture and Chinese structural Goods important through the Swedish East India Company the royal family lived in the Pavilion in summer and would have dinner in one of the smaller buildings called the confidence there a dining table had been fixed on a lift device and could be set on the floor below before being hoisted up to the dining room this meant that the Royals could eat their dinner without the presence of servants or on confidants as it was called following Crown Prince Gustav's Ascension to the throne there were also plans direct a Chinese Pagoda on a nearby Hill but like many other of the king's building projects it was never realized because of its assassination in 1792. inspired by Pavilions like the one at rottenham Catherine the Great of Russia also decided to follow the fashion for shinwa Serene however she intended to outdo her contemporaries in terms of scale and accuracy other residence at Tsar Square cello about 24 kilometers or 15 miles south of Saint Petersburg she ordered her Architects Antonio Rinaldi and Charles Cameron to design an entire Chinese village it was to consist of 18 houses faced with the glazed final Styles and the composition would center around an octagonal domed Observatory closely modeled after a contemporary Chinese engraving from a personal collection to complement this Ensemble the empress also planned to build an eight-tiered Tower a near copy of the great Pagoda at Kew Gardens construction began in the 1780s but crowned to Halt with the death of Catherine in 1796. only 10 of the houses had been completed and the elaborate Chinese style roof of the observatory was not implemented the idea of glazed tiles also had to be scrapped when it became clear that they couldn't withstand the frost and instead the buildings were painted with the Chinese motifs work did not resume until 1818 when Alexander the first asked the architect vasini stasov to overhaul the village in order to provide accommodation for his guests this resulted in the removal of much of the orientalizing decor and the construction of a spherical Dome on the observatory The Village suffered serious damage in World War II but with few funds available in the post-war period restoration would have to wait until the 1990s this wasn't Catherine the Great's only shinwasri project just next to the Village stands the creaking Pagoda named after the characteristic sound produced by its metal Weathervane and in the same park you can find several ornate chinese-inspired Bridges and the ruins of what was once the Chinese Theater [Applause] from the very beginning Europe's Chinese Pavilions and palaces had been built as Retreats where their owners could Escape their everyday worries and perhaps more than any other this was the case with our last building created to the backdrop of war and revolution in December 1798 King Ferdinand of Naples and Sicily left his capital on the mainland as the armies of the French Republic Advanced from the north within a month the city had been captured and ferdinand's Old Kingdom had been replaced by the parthenopian Republic under the protection of the British Navy he escaped to Sicily where would mostly remain until the defeat of Napoleon allowed him to permanently recapture the mainland in 1815. once on the island Ferdinand purchased a small chinese-style Villa north of Palermo and asked the architect josephi venancio marvelia to expand it into residence Fit For A King the result is the palazzina genese a highly original and eccentric building that mixes neoclassical symmetry with the gothic arches and Chinese inspired decorum placed within an ornate Italian Garden it has two tall porticos surrounded by pagoda-like roofs and running along its facade are continuous balconies accessible from detached towers with spiral staircases in the basement there is a large Ballroom decorated in Louis XVI style and the Hall of ruins next to it features a trumpet painting giving the appearance of a collapsed ceiling ascending to the first floor on an external staircase you'll find a reception hall decorated with the paintings depicting a scene's Oriental life the personal rooms of King Ferdinand and the dining room equipped with the mathematical table a similar contrivance to the one at rottenham allowing planes to be discreetly hoisted up from the kitchen below the second floor was reserved for Queen Maria Carolina who with the exception of a turkish-style living room mostly chose to decorate her apartment in a less eccentric neoclassical manner a series of portraits of the royal family found in one of the rooms were personally painted by her and captioned with texts like my support under the king and images of my tenderness under her children completed in 1806 the partina genese would remain in the ownership of the family until 1860 when as a result of the unification of Italy the residents passed to the house of Savoy having since become the property of the local municipality it is now a museum [Music] as the 18th century Drew to a close the orientalist craze was gradually replaced with a strict neoclassicism with the outbreak of the French Revolution the decadence and frivolousness of shinwasri was shunned and the morality he took over as the new custom mimicking the purity of the Roman Republic and Athenian democracy as a way to counter aristocratic excess the style continued to weigh in during March of the 19th century when the appeal of China and the East Asia had to compete with other exotic tastes such as the Turkish Egyptian Gothic and Greek however shinwasri never completely went away and remains popular in interior design even today [Music]

Channel: Kings and Things

Views: 205,949

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Id: z8U35HKphv4

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023