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Here’s another piece written for the Art Newspaper.

China’s Palace Museum, more popularly known as the Forbidden City,
have restored the lavish personal rooms built by the Qianlong Emperor
(a Qing Dynasty Emperor from1735 to1796) offering a lavish insight
into the lives of China’s Emperors. The Emperor’s personal rooms are
called the Juan Qinzhai, literally “the studio of exhaustion from
diligent service.” The rooms are a part of the Qianlong Gardens,
officially titled the Palace of Tranquil Longevity (Ninshou Gong),
which were originally planned as a miniature complex within the
Forbidden City for use during the Emperor’s planned retirement. The
wide ranging restoration project of the 28 buildings, a total of 6400
m2 that make up the Qianlong Gardens, will include external features,
and last up to 2018, the first phase just nearing completion focused
on his private bedrooms and theatre. The buildings were originally
built from 1771–1776 when the Qianlong Emperor was in his thirties.
The Qianlong Emperor was in power when Lord McCartney was sent to
China as George III’s emissary in 1793, which led to the famous ‘kow
tow’ incident.
The rooms were also inhabited by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled
during the boxer rebellion.
The sumptuous theatre restored into all its glory is a private room
accessed by the Emperor via a secret door embedded in a mirror in his
bedroom. The theatre outshines even the most gaudy and flamboyant of
today’s KTV parlours beloved of leaders and businessmen alike in
modern day China.
Both intimate and awe inspiring, the theatre has all its walls
decorated by intricate hand painted murals transporting the viewer
into a Chinese garden, with a small stage for performers.
Ms. Jian Lun Yi, Country Representative for the World Monuments Fund
(WMF), and a Project Manager for Tsinghua University’s Cultural
Heritage Conservation Center, told the Art Newspaper that a total of
US$15 million has been earmarked for the restoration of the Qianlong
Gardens, with USD 3.3 million spent on Juan Qinzhai. According to Ms.
Jian the World Monuments Fund provided the initial amount, as well as
expertise, and the ongoing project will be part funded by the Palace
Museum and WMF.
Using mainly craft techniques from southern China, the complex
restoration work has involved almost lost arts, working with bamboo
used in intricate thread maquetry, embroidery, hand printed wall
paper, restoring the ‘nanmu’ – the now extinct ’southern wood’ loved
by Emperors, and the large murals, painted with traditional Chinese
pigment paints.
The artifacts, wall papers and murals have gone relatively untouched
since the Qianlong’s reign. According to Ms. Jian the rooms had been
used for storage until recently. The rooms were originally floor
heated, and the restorers have installed a modern temperature control
apparatus to keep the rooms at an ideal temperature and humidity for
preservation. Several calligraphic works hand painted by the Emperor,
well known for his wit and love of the arts, have also been restored
and hung. The Emperor’s bed has retained the skeleton of a bat found
by the restorers in a compartment, according to Ms. Jian dead bats
were considered auspicious.
The key piece of the restoration is the large painting, a trompe
l’oiel style piece in the theatre, sometimes accredited to Guiseppe
Castiliogne, a Jesuit painter living in China. A recent seminar in the
palace cast doubt that work was his. Mr Yang Zehau, who led the Palace
Museum’s restoration of the painting told the Art Newspaper he felt
the crane in the painting was likely by Castiliogne, and the scenery
by other painters. He suggested that the bamboo lattices were added to
the painting at an even later date. The painting suffered from water
damage, mould, abrasion and other issues. “We used dough to clean the
painting,” Yang said. His team of 8 restorers, including a WMF expert,
worked for 7 years, on the 170m2 painting. ”
“We spent about 1 month per panel, we couldn’t use traditional
restoration methods for Chinese painting, so we had to spend a lot of
time thinking how to do this work,” Yang said.
An audio guide is being prepared, and tour groups will be limited in
number, Ms Jian said that discussions are still underway, likely
visits will be arranged in several groups of 30 per day. Visitors will
only be allowed access to the site via two main doors, and will not be
allowed into the rooms past the entranceway.