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Eastern Resonances in Early Modern England pp 139–162Cite as

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From Jehol to Stowe: Ornamental Orientalism and the Aesthetics of the Anglo-Chinese Garden

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Part of the book series: New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800 ((NETRANS))

Abstract

This chapter discusses cultural syncretism and strategies of accommodation between China and England’s horticultural theories and practices in the eighteenth century. The architectural presence of China in English gardens is analysed as a form of ornamental orientalism in the context of the development of the Anglo-Chinese garden. The chapter argues that the creation of a hybridized horticultural grammar of ornament took part in a self-reflexive cosmopolitan writing of England’s cultural identity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more information about the history of the Chinese House at Stowe, see Conner (1979a, pp. 236–237) and Jackson-Stops (1993, pp. 217–223).

  2. 2.

    I borrow Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (“hétérotopie”) which he developed in “Des espaces autres,” p. 752.

  3. 3.

    See Chapter 5 for an interpretation of the Anglo-Chinese garden and the taste for China in the English landscape garden (Alayrac-Fielding 2016, pp. 267–349).

  4. 4.

    See for the origin of the term (Murray 1998, pp. 34 and 37; Shimada 1997, pp. 350–352).

  5. 5.

    See Gerrard (1994). On the links between the image of China, literary chinoiserie in the form of the oriental tale and the movement of the Patriots in the 1720s and 1730s in the press, see Alayrac-Fielding (2016, pp. 162–168).

  6. 6.

    For more theorisation about the poetics of ornament, see the introduction to Laurent (2005).

  7. 7.

    For the analysis of Ripa’s adaptation of Shen Yu’s illustrations, see Zhuang (2015, pp. 143–157). I follow Zhuang’s argument here.

  8. 8.

    For more information on Ripa’s influence on the creation of English landscape gardens and on his presence in London, see Gray (1960, pp. 40–42), Jacques (1990, pp. 180–191), and Conner (1979b, pp. 429–440).

  9. 9.

    See Attiret “Lettre du Ier novembre 1743 à M. d’Assault,” 1979. Attiret’s letter was translated into English by Joseph Spence and published in 1752 in London under the title A Particular Account of the Emperor of China’s Gardens Near Peking. See Loehr (1976, pp. 69–84). For an analysis of the notion of progress in the epistemological and aesthetic contexts of eighteenth-century England, see Ogée (1991, pp. 56–65).

  10. 10.

    See for more details about the album (Miller 1984, p. 184).

  11. 11.

    See for another discussion of these engravings (Strassberg 2007, pp. 88–137).

  12. 12.

    On the allegorical function of architecture in eighteenth-century gardens, see Mosser (2002, p. 259).

  13. 13.

    A colonial and imperialistic reading of the garden as a pre-colonial catalogue and display of foreign possessions of the world is another facet of ornamental orientalism that I develop elsewhere. See Alayrac-Fielding (2017, pp. 230–231).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lille, CECILLE EA 4074, Lille, France

    Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding

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  1. Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III, Montpellier, France

    Claire Gallien

  2. Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France

    Ladan Niayesh

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Alayrac-Fielding, V. (2019). From Jehol to Stowe: Ornamental Orientalism and the Aesthetics of the Anglo-Chinese Garden. In: Gallien, C., Niayesh, L. (eds) Eastern Resonances in Early Modern England. New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22925-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22925-2_8

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