圓明園あるいは宣教師たちの「夢の作業」
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概要
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The Yuan Ming Yuan, an imperial summer residence with gardens built during the Qing dynasty, is located in the north-western suburbs of Peking. In the space of some 350 hectares, these famous gardens with their many man-made lakes and hills, displayed the architectural and horticultural skills that had matured in China in the course of several thousand years. However in 1860, at the time of the second Opium War, the gardens were totally destroyed and burnt down during the invasion of the combined armies of France and Britain. Several hundred structures, household goods and valuables were destroyed by fire within the gardens, as were trees and shrubs outside the gardens. The ruins were left to decay further, until in 1980 plans for restoration were made. At present preparations are under way to turn the site into a park, and research on the ruins is in progress. The emperor Gang Lung personally selected forty separate sites and ordered artists to create Chinese style buildings richly decorated with carvings. In addition there were European style buildings erected in 1747-1783 under the direction of the Jesuits visiting China, which furnish interesting evidence of the cultural exchange that took place at the time. The Italian painter Castiglione was in charge of the buildings, while the French astronomer Benoit was responsible for the design of the fountains. On the basis of remaining ground plans, copper plate prints as well as photos taken by the Germans after the destruction of the gardens, it is evident that the buildings were in the style of the late Baroque. With its many palaces, fountains, labyrinths, trees and shrubs pruned into the shapes of animals, waterways etc., the gardens displayed all the essential elements of the Baroque. Especially remarkable was an area laid-out in the shape of a baroque open-air theatre occupying nearly the whole of the garden's eastern half. However with its fountain-heads in the shape of animals, decorative columns standing up-side-down, Chinese-style roofs, and various other changes, the gardens were not completely in European style. Again, one reason being most probably because the gardens occupied a long and narrow stretch of land, they were not designed as a harmonious whole in typical baroque fashion, but rather as a display of a row of buildings, small gardens and fountains in the way a picture scroll unfolds. Various parts of the gardens are in true baroque style, but because they are not assembled in baroque fashion, this creation of the missionaries has an anti-European feel about it. There is the impression of slightly distorted reality, very much like dreams floating by in the night. The eighteenth century was a period when in Europe visions of the East found fertile ground in Chinoiserie on one hand, while on the other, European cultural influence spread over the world.