The Qianlong Emperor Hunting Hare: From the Qing Esthetics of Nature to an End of European Exceptionalism

Authors

Abstract

“The Qianlong Emperor Hunting Hare” proposes an enlargement of the definition of European baroque to account for transfers, exchanges, and interactions in early modern Eurasia. Chinese baroque, the place of nature in this baroque, and the representation of nature in China would be legitimate research topics in environmental history, but until now the notion of baroque has been rarely associated to China. This article on a more inclusive vision of baroque is grounded empirically in the portrait and landscape paintings, garden architecture, and cultural landscape of the Qing dynasty.

Author Biography

Philippe Forêt, Environmental Humanities Switzerland

A geographer trained at the Universities of Peking and of Chicago, I have led projects on the history of Sino-European exchanges in arts and sciences. I am a Carson Fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (spring semester 2017), where I am writing a book on the discovery of climate change. I hold a courtesy appointment at the University of Zurich, and co-direct “Environmental Humanities Switzerland,” which is a program of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (SAGUF, Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences).

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Published

2018-10-18

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Section

Autumn