La Chine: En miniature

Capturing the essence of late 18th-century China in a hundred miniatures seems an impossible task. Yet, on the orders of the French Minister of State, Bertin, the Chinese Catholic priests Aloys Ko and Etienne Yang completed the assignment, revealing a strange and fascinating world that was very distant from the West. The meticulous miniatures, accompanied by explanatory texts, were published in six small but exquisite volumes, appeared in France in 1811. This kaleidoscopic collection, exoti...