The Chinese Ambassador (Translation)
L’Ambassador de la Chine (Primary Title)
Jean Barbault, French, 1718 - 1762 (Artist)
Every year, the French Royal Academy in Rome organized a masquerade procession in the streets of the city during the pre-Lenten celebrations of Carnival. The theme, decorations, and costumes were chosen and designed by the artists in residence, who also played the principal roles in the spectacle. In 1748, the chosen theme was the caravan of the sultan to Mecca. The director of the academy commissioned Barbault, who was one of that year’s fellows, to complete a group of twenty paintings commemorating the event’s elaborate costumes, which were inspired by the imaginary splendors of the Ottoman court.
The Chinese Ambassador was among those works. The procession had included this sumptuously dressed Chinese diplomat among the Turkish sultan’s entourage. The fusion of elements from the traditional attire of diverse Asian and Middle Eastern cultural groups to indiscriminately delineate Eastern subjects was a common practice in European art at this time. The ambassador’s long mustache, his pagoda-shaped feather hat topped with a gilded figure, and his imperial-yellow mantel were all common motifs of chinoiserie. Some of his other accessories, including his oversized pantaloons and scimitar, were more accurately associated with representations of courtiers of the Ottoman Empire during this era.
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