Dressed to Rule: Eighteenth-Century Court Attire in the MacTaggart Art Collection (review)

Superbly conceived and sumptuously presented, John Vollmer’s Dressed to Rule presents an erudite but accessible account of the impact of the court dress reforms of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–96) on Chinese imperial robes. Histories and exhibitions of Chinese art tend to give pride of place to the traditional literati arts of painting and calligraphy, to ceramics, and increasingly to contemporary art. Yet the rarefied objects of such studies existed in a rich and sensuous material world. Within this world, silk textiles – such as those that serve as the focus of Vollmer’s study – manifest the aesthetic, technological, political, and cultural achievements of China every bit as much as those other arts that have garnered greater scholarly attention.

When the Manchus, whose homeland lay north of the Great Wall, conquered China in 1644 and founded the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), they established themselves as alien overlords in an inhospitable, Chinese state. Not only did the Manchu face political resistance, but they also faced cultural prejudice. This situation was exacerbated by the fact that the formerly nomadic culture of the Manchu required adaptation to the sedentary materiality of China. As the new rulers of China, the Manchu ruling elite especially faced the challenge of adapting their customs, which ethnic Chinese viewed as ‘barbarian,’ to the traditions of Chinese court culture.

In a narrative structured by an exhibition of fifteen works from the MacTaggert Collection of Chinese Art, and illustrated with several more, Vollmer, an expert on Chinese textiles and costume, tells the story of how Qing dynasty court robes evolved and how they communicated the cultural and political values of the Manchu rulers of China. Vollmer begins by briefly tracing the history of the Manchu people, exploring the constructs of Manchu identity before 1644, and investigating the evolution of Manchu dress prior to the Manchu conquest of China. Attention is paid to the fact that the Manchu were nomadic horsemen, whose garments had to function in that context, which was remarkably different from that of China’s waspish, educated, urban elites. Then Vollmer explores the history of Chinese dragon-patterned silks north of the Great Wall, prior to the Manchu Conquest, the symbolism of the colour yellow for the Manchu state, and, following Ming (1368–1644) precedent, the Manchu implementation of a system of rank badges for all officials who served the emperor; here Vollmer explores the Qing notion that ‘court apparel defined and sustained the elite who were responsible for good government on earth and harmony in heaven.’ By focusing on a set of thirty-four folio illustrations of formal garments and accessories assigned to the empress dowager in the MacTaggert Collection, and by interpreting these illustrations vis-à-vis surviving garments, Vollmer creates a compelling image of the importance of Qing court dress after the dress reforms.

The brilliance of Vollmer’s narrative is nowhere more evident than in his exploration of how the symbolism of the robe sits against the body of its wearer. By demonstrating how the placement of symbols on a robe reinforced the capability of the body parts against which they lay, Vollmer moves beyond a formalist reading of the robes to understand their function as cosmologically powerful, apotropaic objects of Manchu rule. Vollmer also attends to the more mundane details of the production of Qing court robes and to their larger place within Chinese society. Especially interesting is the way in which Vollmer shows how the look and symbolism of Qing court robes informed other types of Qing fancy dress, from actors’ robes to Chinese and Manchu bridal coats. Vollmer concludes by articulating the ways in which the Manchu understood the importance of their image, including dress. Here Vollmer importantly reminds the reader that it is the image of Manchu court dress that continues to inform contemporary notions of traditional Chinese dress and that continues to serve as emblems of ‘China,’ even though the Manchu were not ethnic Chinese.

Dressed...