Lecture-Tasting with Evelina Vedom "Chinoiserie – the Mysterious 'Chinese Style'"
Event overview
On June 15th, Narva Museum invites residents and guests of the city to a meeting with art historian Evelina Vedom. Evelina Vedom's lectures, which cover various cultural phenomena from the tradition of chocolate consumption to the diversity of "white gold" - porcelain, always draw full houses.
At the fifth (final) lecture of the spring-summer series, we invite you to experience the ephemeral grandeur of ancient Asia.
China has always been, and to some extent still remains, a mystery to Europeans. The fashion for goods from the East emerged in Europe at the end of the 17th century when the Dutch East India Company began to import large quantities of goods from China and East Asia — porcelain dishes, silver and gold items, silk and cotton fabrics. Despite their high cost, these items were popular, especially among the nobility. By the early 18th century, the first enterprises in Europe began producing imitations of expensive Chinese dishes — items in the "chinoiserie" style. They then started to mimic other Chinese decor items — furniture, screens, wallpapers, panels, and paintings. Architects began to imitate Eastern buildings, constructing tea houses, pagodas, and pavilions in parks and palace complexes.
However, the chinoiserie style was often criticized: the European copies of Chinese items contained many errors, as the craftsmen did not study the philosophy and culture of the East and could not accurately convey the meaning of different patterns. Nonetheless, the chinoiserie style became one of the most beloved in European decorative arts, and collections of stylized "Chinese" items are the pride of many private art collections and museums, including the Lavretsov Collection at Narva Museum.
Join us on Thursday, June 15, at 17:30, on the third floor of Rondeel Restaurant, for the lecture "Chinoiserie – the Mysterious 'Chinese Style'." The event will be complemented by gastronomic accompaniments from Rondeel Restaurant.
During the lecture, we will also examine unique antique items from the Narva Museum's collections, discuss the history of their arrival in the collection, and their intended use.
Participation cost: 22 € First 5 tickets at a special price: 18 €
