The Ziguangge: Hall of Purple Splendor

Event Venue, Heroes’ Gallery and Theatre of War

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  Porträt des Fürsten Corgiyamz‘an (Kriegsverlust), Detail, Qing-Dynastie (1644 – 1911), 1776, Detail, Originalbild: Hängerolle, Reproduktion von Glasplatten

• Unbekannte(r) Hofmaler, Porträt des Militäroffiziers Baninga, Detail, Qing-Dynastie (1644 – 1911), Hängerolle

• Unbekannte chinesische und europäische Hofmaler, Die Schlacht von Qurman (Fragment), Detail, Qing-Dynastie (1644 – 1911), Qianlong Ära (1736 – 1795), 1760, Hängerolle

China's emperors commissioned portraits of loyal officials and generals as early as 2,000 years ago. This presentation shows portraits of meritorious officers commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor (R. 1736-1795) for their exhibition in the Ziguangge Hall of Fame to demonstrate his power and legitimacy. In the 20th century, they were twice taken as spoils of war.
The Ziguangge is located next to the Forbidden City in Beijing and is a two-storey pavilion. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795), the hall was a place where military rituals and banquets were held and battle paintings of the imperial military campaigns and portraits of meritorious officers were housed.
During the brutal suppression of the Boxer Movement (Yihetuan) in 1900/01 by the multinational Eight-Nation Alliance, to which the Prussian military also belonged, the hall was looted and all 280 portraits were stolen. Many of the pictures also ended up in German collections. in 1945, the USSR administration took the pictures in the Berlin collection, shown here in the form of a few black and white reproductions, as spoils of war; the original works are still in museums in Russia today.
Curator
The exhibition is curated by Birgitta Augustin.

Presentation as part of the project "Traces of the "Boxer War" in German museum collections - a joint approach" (2021-2024), project management: Christine Howald, Central Archive, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and with the support of the Palace Museum, Beijing
A temporary presentation of the Museum of Asian Art of the National Museums in Berlin in the Humboldt Forum, Room 320, "China and Europe"Translated with DeepL

Runtime: Wed, 28/08/2024 to Mon, 31/08/2026

Takes place here:

• Humboldt Forum