From China to Sicily. The Taste of Chinoiserie in Eighteenth Century Europe

The article offers numerous examples Chinoiserie in Eighteenth Century Europe is a hybrid style, an assemblage of two cultures and a fusion of artistic elements that comes both from the East and the West. This is revealed by some examples which are analysed in this paper: the Chinoiseries by François Boucher or Jean-Baptist Pillement; the Chinese room by the Venetian painter Gian Domenico Tiepolo in Villa Valmarana near Vicenza; the numerous Chinese rooms in Italian courts, from Turin to Naples; the Casina cinese (“little Chinese palace”) in Palermo. The contribution concludes with an analysis of the Prince of Biscari‟s palace and collections in Catania, which are still little investigated in this regard. Keywords: Chinoiserie, Italian art, European art, Collections, Sicilian chinoiserie 1. Introduction “What about [...] Jupiter against the lightning rod?” was the question Karl Marx was wondering in a passage of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy from Italian art and, above all, from the art of Southern Italy and Sicily, that demonstrates how the encounter between European and Chinese art generates the coexistence of two expressive registers and the incorporation of Oriental themes in the Western style. The Chinoiserie in Eighteenth Century Europe is a hybrid style, an assemblage of two cultures and a fusion of artistic elements that comes both from the East and the West. This is revealed by some examples which are analysed in this paper: the Chinoiseries by François Boucher or Jean-Baptist Pillement; the Chinese room by the Venetian painter Gian Domenico Tiepolo in Villa Valmarana near Vicenza; the numerous Chinese rooms in Italian courts, from Turin to Naples; the Casina cinese (“little Chinese palace”) in Palermo. The contribution concludes with an analysis of the Prince of Biscari's palace and collections in Catania, which are still little investigated in this regard.