Ressource pédagogique : "A Butterfly Supporting an Elephant": Chinoiserie in Eighteenth-Century England, or "the Luxuriance of Fancy" / Vanessa Alayrac

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"A Butterfly Supporting an Elephant": Chinoiserie in Eighteenth-Century England, or "the Luxuriance of Fancy" / Vanessa Alayrac, in colloque international organisé, sous la responsabilité scientifique de Muriel Adrien, Melissa Percival et Axel Hémery, par l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès et l’Université d’Exeter. Toulouse, Musée Paul-Dupuy, 3-4 décembre 2015. Two visions of China co-existed In the eighteenth-century in England, and in Europe at large, one that could be associated with the development of the Rococo chinoiserie style in Europe, whilst the other offered a more serious, scholarly and philosophical approach to the manners and customs of the Confucian Middle Kingdom. The fashion for chinoiserie in the decorative arts was often ascribed to the lure of exoticism, spurred by the fanciful, sometimes whimsical work of the imagination. Indeed in his famous design pattern book The Ladies Amusement (1752), Robert Sayer was keen to emphasise the relationship between freedom, fancy and chinoiserie: « With Indian and Chinese subjects great Liberties may be taken, because Luxuriance of Fancy recommends their productions more than Propriety, for in them is often seen a Butterfly supporting an Elephant, or Things equally absurd ; yet from their gay Colouring and airy Disposition seldom fail to please » (Robert Sayer, The Ladies Amusement; or Whole Art of Japanning made Easy, 1752). This paper will investigate the diverse meanings of the term “fancy” associated, positively or negatively, with English artistic productions in the chinoiserie style: fancy as an expression of liberty and a manifesto for the playful nature of the repertoire of chinoiserie, but also fancy as the mark of a severe philosophical and aesthetic judgment passed by arbiters of taste on this exotic style.

"Domaine(s)" et indice(s) Dewey

• Art de 1700 à 1799 (XVIIIe siècle) (709.033)
• Arts décoratifs-sujets particuliers de l'iconographie (704.94)

Thème(s)