“Perceiving that I had made some progress in the art of engraving, his Majesty resolved to have prints of thirty-six different views taken from the residence of Je-hol [Re-he] built by himself. Accordingly, I went there with the Chinese painters whom he had ordered to make the drawings and I thus had an opportunity to see the whole grounds, a distinguished favour which had never yet been conferred on any other European.” (Ripa: Memoirs of Father Ripa, during thirteen years’ residence at the court of Peking in the service of the emperor of China. London, 1844, p.72).
Father Matteo Ripa (1682-1746), was sent to China as a missionary by the Propaganda Fide. Between 1711 and 1723 he worked as a painter and copper-engraver at the court of the Kangxi Emperor. Ripa accompanied the Emperor on several of the annual hunting expeditions during which they would inevitably visit the ‘Mountain Retreat to Escape the Heat’ (Bishu shanzhuang) a huge garden complex located on the Rehe River (Jehol, now Chengde) some 200km north of Peking. It functioned as a base for hunting expeditions as well as a palace for receiving visitors from Manchuria and the periphery of the empire (Lord Macartney also travelled there in 1793). Construction of the park commenced in 1703 and by 1712 some 36 scenes and palaces buildings had been built in an area covering around 2.2 square miles. Each of these scenes was named in groups of four characters.
The emperor decided to celebrate the occasion with a palace edition that illustrates each scene with a large woodcut accompanied by poetic descriptions from his brush. It was published under the title Yuzhi Bishu shanzhuang sanshiliu jing shi (1712, with woodcuts by Shen Yu). He then asked Matteo Ripa to copy each of the woodcut scenes using copper plates. Ripa managed to complete the project just in time for the Emperor’s 60th birthday in 1713 and presented him with a set. It was the first time this technique had been used in China and it found the Emperor’s admiration. In the late 18th century, his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, used the technique to produce a series of engravings celebrating victorious battle campaigns.
The present print shows the Yuanjin quansheng (Sounds of a Spring Near and Far) group of buildings, which is located on the eastern shore of the Inner Lake (neihu) next to the Surging Greenery Cliff (Yongcuiyan) which provides the backdrop for a gushing waterfall. The main hall is surrounded by a system of covered walkways and next to it is a smaller hall named “Hall of Accumulated Fragrance (Juxiangzhai). The whole complex sits next to a lotus pond on two sides. According to the commentary of the Kangxi Emperor the scene alludes to a famous poem by the Tang poet Li Bo entitled “Gazing at the waterfall on Hermitage Mountain” (Lu-shan wangpu). It is the 25th view in the Bishu shanzhuang series of thirty-six. (see: Strassberg/Whiteman: Thirty-six Views. The Kangxi Emperor’s Mountain Estate in Poetry and Prints. Washington, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2016, p. 222ff.)
Sets or individual prints of the Ripa engravings are exceedingly rare. They were only distributed amongst the close circle of the Emperor’s friends and family. We are only aware of one set having been offered at auction since 1945.
