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DTSTAMP:20260510T205922Z
DESCRIPTION:In this pairing of mini-lectures\, scholars John Finlay and Kri
 stel Smentek offer complementary views on arts and intercultural exchange 
 between France and China in the eighteenth century.Henri Bertin and the Re
 presentation of China in Eighteenth-Century France (Finlay)The role of Hen
 ri-Léonard Bertin (1720–92)\, who served as a minister of state under Loui
 s XV\, is crucial to understanding the encounters between China and France
  in the eighteenth century. Bertin first established his contact with the 
 French Jesuits in Beijing through two Chinese Catholic priests\, Aloys Ko 
 and Étienne Yang. When the missionaries returned to China in 1765\, they t
 ook with them an important set of gifts to be presented to the Qianlong em
 peror. Not to be misconstrued as tribute from France to China\, these gift
 s were intended to stimulate Chinese interest in French culture and French
  artistic production.Disorienting China: Negotiating the Foreign in Eighte
 enth-Century France (Smentek)As European trade with the Qing empire accele
 rated in the eighteenth century\, France was flooded with objects from Chi
 na whose technologies\, materials\, and motifs challenged European underst
 anding. These ranged from the lacquers and porcelains with which historian
 s are familiar\, to scroll paintings\, bronzes\, and worked jades whose pr
 esence in eighteenth-century Europe is far less studied. This talk investi
 gates the display and material alteration of Asian imports in France and t
 he design of new objects in response to them—strategies by which the Frenc
 h negotiated the pleasures and disorientations of China’s arts.Formerly a 
 curator of Chinese art\, John Finlay is an independent scholar based in Pa
 ris\, affiliated with the Centre d’Études sur la Chine Moderne et Contempo
 raine (CECMC). He began his academic career studying paintings and prints 
 produced for the Qing imperial court in the eighteenth century. His curren
 t research focuses on Henri-Léonard Bertin (1720–92)\, who served as a min
 ister of state under Louis XV. His passion for all things Chinese placed h
 im at the center of intersecting networks of like-minded individuals who s
 hared his vision of China as a nation from which France had much to learn.
 Kristel Smentek is associate professor of art history in the Department of
  Architecture at MIT. Her research focuses on eighteenth-century European 
 graphic and decorative arts in their transcultural contexts. She is the au
 thor of Mariette and the Science of the Connoisseur in Eighteenth-Century 
 Europe (2014)\, co-curator of Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age
  of Enlightenment recently on view at the Harvard Art Museums\, and co-edi
 tor of its accompanying catalogue. She is currently completing Disorient: 
 Arts from China in Eighteenth-Century France\, a book investigating French
  responses to Chinese imports over the course of the long eighteenth centu
 ry. Bard Graduate Center is grateful for the generous support of the Selz 
 Foundation.AccessAssistive listening devices are available. American Sign 
 Language interpretation and/or CART Captioning are available upon request 
 (email public.humanities@bgc.bard.edu). Learn more about visiting BGC here
 .Covid PoliciesLearn more about our COVID policies here.
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T170000
SUMMARY:Bard Graduate Center: China and France in the Intercultural Eightee
 nth Century
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