Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/725934
43 I n 1684, a Belgian Jesuit missionary, Père Couplet, traveled to France from his mission in China, bringing with him a young Chinese convert—and attracting so much attention that the exotic travelers gained an audience with Louis XIV at Versailles. Two years later, a delega- tion of representatives from Siam (now Thailand) arrived at the court, bringing with them lacquer, ceramics, porcelain, and silks, in a visit that Charissa Bremer-David, curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, describes as a significant ambassadorial voyage that took them to the Beauvais man- ufactory, an enterprise roughly 40 miles north of Paris that produced intricate woven tapestries for the wealthy bourgeoisie and French nobility. "You can imagine that East-West contact was challenged by distances and travel and how to communicate," Bremer-David says. "But there were these pivotal encounters that captured their imagination. It is likely these pivotal in-person meet- ings at the court of Versailles partly inspired the production of a series of Beauvais tapes- tries called The Story of the Emperor of China, based on nine stories thought to be about the Chinese Emperor K'ang Hsi, who reigned from 1661 to 1722. Enter The Chairman's Club at Wynn Palace, and you will see one of these scenes, The Audience of the Emperor, an 11-foot-high tapestry hung on a golden wall that is a fanciful depiction of the emperor under a festooned pavilion. Another, The Harvesting of Pineapples, anchors a corridor in Wing Lei Palace restaurant, in which work- ers gather pineapples under a tall banana tree as a woman (possibly the empress) gestures to viewers to look beyond the fan she holds toward pagodas in the distance. Many details about these tapestries will never be known. "What were the critical points of contact? Who gave these books to the Beauvais manufactory? Who advised the artist that the emperor should be wearing this very cap? It doesn't look like the Ming equivalent precisely, because the poor artist never went to China," notes Bremer-David. The series' great importance lies in the fact that the tapestries are considered some of the earliest expressions of chinoiserie in France. The Western evocation of Chinese motifs later turned playful, given purely decorative, rococo twists. Travel and trade made artistic exchange possible during the 18th century, and lacquerware—such as items that early Siamese delegation brought to France—became a significant import to Europe from China. One rare example of this export is an antique lacquer screen that anchors the lobby of the business center in Wynn Palace. The single Cantonese eight-panel screen is an exceptional example of Chinese export art, circa 1820. Many layers of lacquer were applied onto wood to create the glossy black surface on which hand-painted, gilded scenes depict the exotic pagodas, pleasure gardens, and boats of courtly life. In fact, much of the basis for the design of Wynn Palace, as well as the fine art collection it holds, is the tradition of chinoiserie, says Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development Roger Thomas. "When the tradition of chinoiserie first began, there was very little understanding—other than limited physical contact—between East and West," he says. "But we now have extraordinary access, Much of the basis of the design of Wynn Palace, as well as the fine art collection it holds, is the tradition of chinoiserie. photography by roger Davies