Playing Games with Otherness: Watteau's Chinese Cabinet at the Chteau de la Muette

Author(s): Katie Scott

Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 66 (2003), pp. 189-248
Published by: The Warburg Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026316 .
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 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS: WATTEAU'S
CHINESE CABINET AT THE CHATEAU DE LA MUETTE*
Katie Scott
for Rene Demoris

July 1731 the widow Chereau and Louis Surugue, important print-sellerson or
just off the rue SaintJacques, announced in the pages of the MercuredeFrancethe
imminent publication of a series of thirty 'Figures chinoises' etched and engraved
after paintings by Antoine Watteau at the chateau of La Muette (Fig. 1).1 The
scheme reproduced- very possiblyWatteau'slargest and most ambitious decorative
ensemble- did not survivelong.2 In the absence of preliminarydrawings,modellior
copies, these prints constitute the primary, indeed, virtually the only, evidence of
the Chinese cabinetor closet's history and original appearance, modern scholarship
having, until recently, largely failed to add to our knowledge of the scheme.3 The

* I should like to thankfor their generoushelp Rococo DecorativeStyle(1943), NewYork1980, p. 139,

and support the curatorsat the Nationalmuseum, that the paintingsmaynot ever have been installed,
Stockholm,for givingme unrestrictedaccess to the probablyarisesfromknowledgeof theJulyannounce-
ClaudeIIIAudranand AntoineWatteaudrawingsin ment alone. The prints were commissionedfrom
their collection;and the AHRBfor fundingmuch of MichelAubert,EdmeJeuratand FrancoisBoucher.
the research.For their acute and alwaysconstructive The scheme was later published in the so-called
criticism which has contributed immeasurablyto ReceuilJulienne,Jean de Julienne's project to repro-
the improvementand scope of the text I thankvery duce Watteau'sceuvre.In 1726 appeared the first
warmlythe editors of the presentJournaland the volume of the Figures de differents caracteresafter
anonymous readers to whom the manuscriptwas Watteau'sdrawings,followed by a second volume
sent for comment.Versionsof the essayhave served two years later. These formed the first part of the
as the songfor mysupperat a numberof conferences Receuil. Concurrently Juliennehadinitiatedthe repro-
(Universityof Warwick,The Clark Library) and duction of the paintings (for which he obtained a
seminars (RCA/V&A,CourtauldInstitute of Art) privilegein 1727), the fruit of which continued to
and I wouldlike to thankfor theircriticalcomments appearregularlyuntil 1734, the individualprintsor
and suggestions on these occasions the following setsof prints,like the panelsfor LaMuette,advertised
friends, colleagues and students:CarolineArscott, at correspondingintervalsin the Mercure deFrance.
Jonathan Bennet, Maxine Berg, Rene Demoris, These were then gathered together in two further
StephenDeuchar,Juliet Carey,NancyCollins,Janice volumes and, along with the Figures,collectively
Mercurio,SarahMonks,MarySheriff,DavidSolkin, entitled L'CEuvre d'Antoine Watteau... grave [sic]
John Styles,Carolynand MichaelThorneloe,Alicia d'apresses tableauxet desseinsoriginaux.It sold for 500
Weisberg-Roberts andJoannaWoodall.Mywarmest livres.The standardhistoryof the enterpriseis still
thanks are reserved, however, for Paul Crossley, that of E. Dacier,J. Vuaflartand A. Herold,Jean de
withoutwhoseencouragementand generouscritical Julienne et lesgraveursde Watteauau XVIIPsiecle,4 vols,
attentionthe essaywouldnot haveseen publication. Paris 1921-29. I have made use of the copy of the
For their painstakingpreparationof the text for Receuilin the Departmentof Printsand Drawingsat
publicationI alsothankJennyBoyleand UschiPayne. the BritishMuseum.
Abbreviations: 2. The date of the creationof the cabinetremains
A.N. = Paris,Archivesnationales uncertain and is discussed in some detail below.
BnF= Paris,Bibliothequenationalde France. La Muette underwentconsiderablerebuildingand
1. MercuredeFrance, July 1731, p. 1780. The sale remodellingfrom 1737 and the cabinetalmost dis-
of the prints was confirmed by a later announce- appearedat that time. See C. Tadgell,Ange-Jacques
ment in the same periodical (November 1731, p. Gabriel,London 1978, pp. 160-61.
2623): at the Deux Pilliers d'Or, 'toute la suite 3. The mostsustainedand speculativediscussions
des Figureschinoises,gravees d'apres les Peintures of the possible appearanceof the scheme are to be
d'AntoineWatteau,qui sont dansle Cabinetdu Roy, found in Dacier,Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), 1,
au Chateaude la Meutte [sic], en 30. morceaux...' pp. 25-26; M. RolandMichel,Watteau: AnArtistofthe
The suggestion of F. Kimball, The Creationof the Eighteenth Century,NewYork 1984, pp. 279-80; and

JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES, LXVI, 2OO3

190 KATIESCOTT

Figure 1. FiguresChinoiseset Tartarespeintespar WatteauPeintredu Roy,title-page, 1731, engraving

( BibliothequeNationalede France,Cabinetdes artsgraphiques)

first part of this essay therefore necessarily involves detective work; initially a review
of the evidence and search for further clues, secondly a speculative reconstruction
of the whole by the assembly of some of its possible parts. 'Archaeology' over, I
embark in part 2 on a close reading of the cabinetwhich takes chinoiserie, a genre of
decoration combining ornament and figure often regarded as trivial,seriously.The
principal goal is to identify the ideological forces which shaped this particular
manifestation of the 'other' in the waning years of Louis XIV's reign, and to suggest
the role played by Chinese exotica in the formation of new identities in a 'post-
absolutist'world.4Part 2 begins and ends with making:I recognise, at the outset, that
the lightness of chinoiserie- a lightness which is interpreted both formally and meta-
phorically-was in fact built into the genre, and argue that it originates from the
specific conditions of invention and production associated with an elite workshop;
I conclude by noting that this intrinsic fragilityleft chinoiserieopen to appropriation
or re-working- specifically,in this instance, a re-workingby, and perhaps for, socially-

M. Eidelbergand S. A. Gopin, 'Watteau'sChinoiseries Chinoiserie:Chinese Influence on European Decorative

at La Muette',Gazette
desBeaux-Arts,cxxx, 1997, pp. Art, iyth and 18th Centuries,transl. G. Mangold-Vine,
19-46. Otherwisethe scheme gets rathersummary London
London 1981, p. 13;D.Jacobson,Chinoiserie,
treatmentfromWatteauscholars;see e.g. D. Posner, !993'PP- 62-64, 68.
AntoineWatteau,London 1994, p. 59. It has been 4. The phrase 'post-absolutism to describe
of much greater interest to those concerned with cultural change during the period when the state
chinoiserie;see H. Honour, Chinoiserie:The Vision of apparatusof the ancienregimeremained yet intact
Cathay, London 1961, pp. 89-90; O. Impey, is coined by J. Caplan in In the Kings Wake:Post-
Chinoiserie:The Impact of OrientalStyleson WesternArt AbsolutistCulturein France,Chicago and London
and Decoration,
Oxford 1977, pp. 80-82; M. Jarry, 1999-
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 19 1

aspiring women. In the discussion framed by these 'makings', the witty structure of
chinoiserieis analysedin the light of Freud'sworkon jokes.5 I argue that, by combining
passages of innocent play and tendentious ridicule, the genre can be situated
historically between the ages of discovery and colonialism. More specifically, I try
to show how contradictions in proto-colonialism were manifest at the turn of the
century, in a clash between discourses on Christian and trade missions. With the
ascendancyof the latter, chinoiserie evolvedfrom betokening a performance, a passage
of identities, to a material object- a development that finds its parallel, I suggest, in
the displacement of status from blood to capital, and more generally, of the power
of the court to that of the city.
The ordering concept, prevailing theme and recurrent leitmotif of these several
discussions is that of play. More than a conceit, play functions to facilitate the raising
of historical questions through the visual. 'Playfulness' has often been used to
describe the 'gout moderne' of the early eighteenth century and to characterise its
relation to the established conventions of classicism predominant when absolutism
was most absolute, that is, in the previous century.6 'At play' also describes, quite
literally, the state in which the social elite of the ancien regimeassumed its legal
identity and lived out its life.7 At another level, Nobert Elias has argued that we
should think about the perpetuation of court society in terms of game playing, a
social model that is dynamic and allows for a degree of transformation in repro-
duction.8 The politically and socially adventurous played with and for identities
which were theirs neither by nature, nor by convention, nor by (divine) right. In so
far as they did so successfullythey transformed the rules by which status and power
were traditionallyattributed. Play is thus an aesthetic, an historical condition and a
social model. In an effort to keep all three in view I have, not altogether seriousnessly,
assigned the sections of this essay the names of familiargames. 'Cluedo' denotes the
skill of establishing what we know, and willingly acknowledges the part played by
guessworkin all such endeavour. The design process is labelled 'Origami',for its use
of folding and its reliance on iterativeprocesses and mirror-play.'Charades'suggests
that, for the ancien regime,the 'other' assumed the nature of a performance, and
hints at its comic flavour. 'Roulette' alludes to the stakes played for in the markets
for status and luxury commodities. Only the last section, cDecoupage\or the art of
cutting-out, literally as well as metaphorically describes an early eighteenth-century
pastime:9 prints were cut up and pasted onto furniture, their motifs mixed and
re-combined in heteroclite assortments. By assuming the part of producer, the

5. SigmundFreud,Jokesand theirRelationto the XVIIIesiecle) Aix-en-Provence1976; T. Kavanagh,

Unconscious,transl.J. Strachey,ed. A. Richards( The Enlightenmentand theShadowsof Chance:TheNovel and
PenguinFreudLibrary, vi) , London 199 1. the Culture of Gambling in Eighteenth-Century
France,
6. See e.g. P. Minguet,Esthetique
durococo(1966), Baltimore 1993; and idem, 'The Libertine'sBluff:
Paris1979, pp. 238-50; on the dialoguebetweenthe Cardsand Culture in Eighteenth-CenturyFrance',
grotesque/arabesqueand the classicaltraditionsee Studies,xxxin.4, 2000, pp. 505-
Eighteenth-Century
T. E. Crow,Paintersand PublicLife in Eighteenth-Century 21.
Paris,Londonand New Haven,CT 1985, pp. 58-65; 8. N. Elias,TheCourtSociety,
Oxford 1983.
K. Scott, TheRococoInterior:Decorationand SocialSpaces 9. Charades,as we understandthem today,were
in EarlyEighteenth-CenturyParis, New Haven, CT and introducedin the late 18th centuryand roulette at
London 1995, pp. 137-45. the beginningof the 19th century.
7. See Le jeu au XVIIPsiecle(colloque 1971,
Centre Aixois d'etudes et de recherches sur le
i92 KATIESCOTT

consumer displaced meaning from one set of signs onto another of his or her own
choosing, thus resisting the passagefrom sign to referent engineered by the original.
Similarly,the relationship of explanation between the 'games' or discursive fields
sketched out here falls somewhat short of the straightforwardlylinear; it too is rather
one of displacement, of lateral moves in which meaning is drawnacrossfrom one set
of signs to another in a miseen abyme.The essay is thus open to re-readingsin which
the connections between sections, their sequence and interplay, are dramatically
re-produced.10

1. Cluedo: (Re) searching Watteau's Chinese cabinet

The legends beneath the prints tell us that they were executed after paintings 'tire
du cabinet du Roy' at La Muette.11However, since no trace of the paintings is to be
found in the archivesof the Maison du Roi,12most scholars have concluded that the
scheme originated not with Louis XV, but with one of the chateau's former tenants.
Situated on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, the sixteenth-century, single-storey
hunting lodge had not alwaysbeen so fully in the crown's possession.13Under Louis
de
XIII and Louis XIV it had been attached as a perquisite to the office of Capitainerie
la Varennedu Louvrewhich, from 1705, was assumed byJoseph-Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau
d'Armenonville, at that time an intendantdesfinances.14' However, the privilege was
his for little more than a decade. In 1716 the Regent, Philippe d'Orleans, offered
the estate to his daughter Marie Louise Elizabeth, duchesse de Berry,15who

10. The connectionsbetween origamiand decou- Importantly,they drawattentionto a paintingof the

page have already been mentioned in the text. chateauby PierreDenis Martinthe Younger(1722-
Additionally,there are links between origami and 23, MuseeNationaldu Chateaude Versailles)which
roulette, in both of which chance plays a part- at clearly shows its central, single-storeycorpsde logis
the elbow of producersin the first instance and in withMansartroof and its flankingtwo-storey wings.
relation to consumersin the second- a link which 14. A.N.M.C. XXXIII/407, 26 October 1705:
could be exploredfurther.Finally,bringingtogether contract of sale between Theophile de Catelande
charadesand decoupage drawsattentionto questions Sablonnieres and Joseph-Jean-BaptisteFleuriau
of gender that in the present sequence are only d'Armenonvillefor '[les] chargesde Capitainedes
peripherallyevident. chasteauxde Madrid,La Muetteet Paredu bois de
11. Eidelbergand Gopin (as in n. 3), pp. 20-21, Boullogne' for 50,000 livres. Fleuriaud'Armenon-
havearguedthatthe term 'Cabinetdu Roi' has been ville's accession to the charge was confirmed by
misinterpretedby modernscholarsand thatit means lettresdeprovisionon 28 October 1705, which were
not a specific room but simply'collection'.While I then registeredby the Chambredes compteson 24
accept this as a possibilityI would like to note that November1705 and againon 15 April 1710.
when used in this way the royal collection was 15. Among the outstanding debts listed in the
imaginedin its totalityand locations (at La Muette) document dividing the estate of d'Armenonville's
weremostlyomitted.The mentionof La Muettethus wife Jeanne Gilbert (A.N. T/720, 25 April 1717,
suggests to me that we are indeed dealing with a partagedesuccession) is the sum of 2,500 livresowed
space,a room, and not a collection. by the duchesse de Berry for rent of La Muette
12. Roland Michel (as in n. 3), p. 279, notes between1July 1716 and December1716, the annual
that the absence of documentationconcerning the rent of the propertyhavingapparentlybeen agreed
scheme contrastsoddlywith its fulsome publication at 5,000 livres.Presumably,the duchesse had been
by Jean de Julienne for his Receuilof Watteau's renting the place whilstthe sale wasbeing finalised.
posthumously-engraved ceuvre(for which see above, Accordingto the marquisde Dangeau,negotiations
n. 1). had startedin June 1716. On 2 June 1716 he noted
13. The standard monograph on the chateau in hisjournal:'Madamela duchessede Berryachete
remainsAmableCharlesFraquet,comte de Franque- la maison de la Meute de M. d'Armenonville.II
ville, Le chateaude la Muette,Paris 1915. Eidelberg demeura toujourscapitaine de Boulogne; en cette
and Gopin (as in n. 3), pp. 21-21, providea more qualite il avoit un appartementdans le chateau de
detailed history of the period relevant here. Madrid, qu'on lui fera accommoder mieux qu'il
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 193

subsequently died there amidst incense and scandal in the hot summer of 1719.16
Uncertaintyover the dating of Watteau'sdesigns has variouslyput both d'Armenon-
ville and de Berry in the frame for the commission of the cabinet.Though we lack
direct evidence, clues gleaned from the d'Armenonville family papers and from the
studio drawingsof Claude III Audran, with whom Watteau was working during the
years c. 1708-12, serve, I think, to endorse the already strong case, made most
recently by MartinEidelberg and Seth A. Gopin, in favour of the intendant.17
D'Armenonville, who by family connections moved in court circles promoting
trade and Christian mission to the East, had, according to the Mercuregalant,
transformed La Muette into 'one of the most agreeable houses in the environs of
Paris'.18So much so that in September 1707 the due and duchesse de Bourgogne
felt compelled by curiosityto visit the place,19and in 1716 the Regent, by probity, to
order an inventory of all the acquisitions, augmentations and ameliorations made,
in order to compensate d'Armenonville for his loss of the place.20The inventory
has not survived.21However, in the same year d'Armenonville suffered a second
loss: his wife,Jeanne Gilbert, died of smallpox. While her probate inventory cannot
make good the lost account of La Muette's embellishments, it does provide valu-
able circumstantialevidence about the contents of Watteau's cabinetand about the
couple's taste for exotic, imported wares.22

n'est.Je ne saispoint ce que madamela duchessede 19. Ibid., pp. 190-96; see also Dangeau,Journal
Berrylui donne;je sais seulement que d'Armenon- (as in n. 15), xi, pp. 454-55; Saint-Simon(as in n.
ville dit qu'il est fort content du marche'. P. de 15), xv, pp. 251-52.
Courcillon,marquisde Dangeau,Journaldu marquis 20. Among the papers mentioned in Jeanne
deDangeau,ed. E. Soulie et al., 19 vols, Paris 1854- Gilbert'sprobate inventoryare letters patent of 4
60, xvi, p. 390. See also L. de Rouvroy,due de July 1716 orderingthe drawingup of the inventory;
Saint-Simon, Memoiresde M. le due de Saint-Simon,ed. see A.N. 6AP 12, 3 December 1716, fols 238V~39V
A. de Boislisleet al., 43 vols, Paris 1879-1930, xxx, (items7-8).
pp. 79-80. However,negotiationsoverthe additional 2 1. The inventorywasdepositedwith the greffeat
sumsfor improvementswere still ongoing in August the Chambre des comptes on 7 August 1716.
and the transfernot concludeduntil the veryend of However,the archivesof the greffewere destroyedby
the year. fire on 27 October 1737. See M. Mortier,Lesortdes
16. According to Duflos, she spent her last the archives dispersees de la Chambre des comptes, Paris 1964.
last months shut up there in her apartments'tout 22. See A.N. 6AP 12 IAD, Jeanne Gilbert, 3
penetres de parfums, a se croire en Orient', a December 1716, which tracks the passage of the
description which extends to the living space as items from La Muette to the chateau de Madrid,
a whole the specificallyChinese taste of Watteau's where they were haphazardlystored in assorted
cabinet.He added that 'ceux qui le venaientvoir en stables, saddleryand garde-meubles. Folios i52r-98r
prenaientun mal de tete'. An orangerie, a laboratoire cover the furniture and effects 'au chasteau de
and an appartement desbainshad been installedfor Madridou ils ont este cy devanttransportsde celuy
her at the expense of the Batimentsdu roi; see BnF de La Muetteou ils estoient.' These included in the
MSfonds francais7801, Papiersde Cotte, fols 159- gardemeuble, items (491) 'une toile indienne', 'une
60. For the faux Chinese lacquer furniturewhich toile facon indienne'; (497) 'courtepointe de toille
wascommissionedfrom the Gobelinsfor La Muette fagon indienne'; (509) 'un tapy de Turquie, pour
see T. Wolvesperges,'The RoyalLacquerWorkshop une petite Table';(551) 'cabareta caffe a Tambour
at the Gobelins 1713-1757', Studiesin theDecorative de la Chine sur son pied de bois dore'; (569) 'deux
Arts,11.2, 1995, pp. 55-76; esp. 61-62. Eidelbergand toursde lei de toille indienne';(575) 'un grandtapy
Gopin (as in n. 3), p. 32, plausiblysuggestthat these de Turquiefort use'; (589) 'une boeste a tabagiesde
pieces of furniture may have been acquired by bois peint de la Chine ovalle'; (592) 'un cabaret
the duchesse from d'Armenonvillealong with the volant de la Chine', 'huit soucoupes de bois de la
chateau. Chine', 'deux autres soucoupes aussy de la Chine
17. Eidelbergand Gopin (as in n. 3). garnysd'un cercled'argentservanta mettretasses. . .
18. Mercure galant,September1707, p. 190: 'une le tout de porcelainefine.'
des plus agreablesmaisonsdes environsde Paris.'
194 KATIESCOTT

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 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 195

First,it is significant thatJeanne Gilbert bought shares in the cargoes of several

merchant ships, perhaps of the verykind responsible for bringing the Indian cottons,
Turkish carpets, lacquer trays and boxes, and Chinese porcelain listed among the
items evacuated from La Muette. This suggests an unusually active investment in
the exotic, an investment she may possibly have initiated since only later did
d'Armenonville buy shares in the Compagnie desIndes.23Secondly, it is not unreason-
able to suppose that the Eastern and Far Eastern wares recouped from the chateau
issued specifically from Watteau's cabinet;certainly comparable items decorated
cabinetsat the hotel d'Armenonville in Paris.24There, Chinese screens 'representant
personnages', porcelain in blue and white and blanc de Chine,and Japanese urns
mounted on stands of gilded wood decorated d'Armenonville's cabineton the
ground floor;25while on the first,Madame's contained not only vases, silvermounted
porcelain bowls, tea-cups adorned with gilt-bronze trimmings, but also a large,
double-fronted lacquer cabinet on its stand of gilded wood.26Indeed, it was her
apartment rather than his that consistently struck an exotic note, her bed-chamber,
salon and gallery all containing important items of lacquer, porcelain and oriental
cloth.27

23. The paperslistedinJeanneGilbert'sinventory du Japon de deux pieds et deux pouces de haut

revealthat at an unknowndate d'Armenonvilleand ronde sur son pied de bois dore'; (67) 'quatre
his wife invested 1,000 livres in each of six ships feuillets de petits paravents de la Chine repre-
fitted out at La Rochelle, 'pour avoir part dans les sentant personnages d'un cote, double de toille
pertes et proffits' (A.N. 6AP 12 IAD, 3 December d'Indienne de l'autre cote, un ecran d'une feuille
1716, fols 477v~78r);also among the papers is a d'arbreausside la Chinemonte surson pied de bois
receiptof 24June 1712, signedby (Antoine)Crozat, de merisier'.
acknowledgingreceipt from 'ladittedeffunte dame 26. Ibid.,fols 44V~49V (cabinetof Jeanne Gilbert):
d'Armenonville'of 1,500 livres 'pour laquelle il a items (158) 'quatregrandejattes de porcelaine,un
interesseladittedame dans le vaisseauarmementet pot a sucre garnyde cercle d'argent avec un rond
cargaisondu Griffon(ibid.,fols 476v~77r).D'Arme- aussy d'argent sur le couvercle, une soucouppe
nonville's shareswiththeirdividendsare listedin his servantaudit pot de porcelaine';(159) 'un cabinet
probateinventorydrawnup on 22 December 1728 de bois de chine a deux volets sur son pied de bois
(A.N. 6AP 12, fol. 333V).For the outcome of these dore..., douze porcelaines,dont une testieregarnye
investmentssee below,n. 149. d'argent, et sept garnyede cuivre dore, le tout de
24. D'Armenonvillehad bought the hotel in the porcelaine'.
rue Platrierefrom EstherHernant,widowof Charles 27. Ibid.,fols 4iv~43r (chambre ofJeanne Gilbert):
de la Cour,marquisde Gouvernet,for 220,000 livres items (137) 'un coffre de la Chine avec son pied de
at some date priorto 8 August1705 when the sale is bois dore'; (138) 'un cabaretde bois dore a pieds de
mentioned in a constitutionde rente.See A.N.M.C. bieche dont le dessus est de la chine garny de six
CXIII/212, 8 August 1705; and furtherdocuments tassesavec leurs soucouppes,une boeste de sucrele
relatingto the transactionin the same carton (titre tout de porcelainebleue d'un coste a petittesfleurs
nouvel,17 August1705; titrenouvel,18 August1705; d'or'; (139) 'un autrecabaretausside la Chineaussy
quittancea titrenouvel, 18 August 1705; quittance,22 a pied de bieche de bois noircygarnyde douze tasses
August1705). Before1705, d'Armenonville 's address avec leurs soucouppes, une desquelles tasses est
wasrue neuve S. Honore. doubleed'argent';(gallery)items (163) four canapes,
25. AN. 6AP 12 IAD,Jeanne Gilbert,3 December 6 armchairs,2 banquettes 'couvertsde tapisde Perse';
1716, fols igv-24r (d'Armenonville 's cabinet)',
items (164) 'deux grands coffres de la chine dont un
(55) 'un cabaret de la Chine garny d'argent avec garny de nacre de Perle'; (170) 'vingt pieces de
trois tasses de porcelaine'; (57) 'deux flambeaux porcelaine';(172) 'deuxpagottestenantchacuneun
de bronzerepresentantchacunun elephant,et deux enfant aussyde la chine de 2 pieds de haut'; (175)
pots de porcelaines en cornet rouge et blanc'; 'deux cabarets facon de la Chine; (salon) items:
(58) 'deux tasses de porcelaine blanche sur leurs (183) 'un clavesindans sa boete de bois peint fagon
soucoupesde bois de la chine sur lesquellesest un de la Chine a deux claviers.'Watteauis thought to
cercle d'argent pour tenir les tasses'; (59) 'quatre have decoratedjust such a harpsichord:see Dacier,
porcelainessur leur consolle de bois dore scavoir Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), iv, p. 95, no. 206;
deux du japon en roulleauxet des autres en urne G. Macchiaand E. C. Montagni,L'operacompleta di
bleue. Une autre grande urne de porcelaine aussy Watteau, Milan1968, p. 94, no. 29.
 196 KATIESCOTT

If these documents reveal for the first time the full extent of the d'Armenonville
passion for things oriental,28prints and drawingsmake possible a provisional recon-
struction of the cabinet'sfixed decoration. The Figureschinoisesreproduce twenty-six
upright compositions containing single, or occasionally coupled figures set against
more-or-lessabbreviatedbackgrounds;and four more complex, horizontal designs,
most likely for the overdoors of the scheme. In the ReceuilJulienne,Watteau's post-
humously-engravedceuvre,the same prints are grouped as follows: 14 uprights- 2
overdoors - 12 uprights - 2 overdoors, the order perhaps dictated by the wish to
create a compulsive rhythm for the turning of pages.29But the arrangement also
hints at a space; a small but elegant rectangular room, generously punctuated by
symmetricallyplaced paired doors, Watteau's small figures arranged in two tiers
(Fig. 2) - perhaps lines of four turning the corners into lines of two.30The remaining
uprights, Temme chinoise de Kouei Tcheon' and 'Viosseu ou Musicien Chinois',
referred possibly to paintings inset above pier-glassesor overmantles.31A painting of
the Chinese musician came to light recently (Fig. 3) and, if original, the remains of
the gold, trompeVoeiloval which frames the performer would seem to support the
arrangement proposed.32The work's small-scalefigures, loose and lively brushwork
and light palette- pale green foreground, background of azure rocks and sky,pewter

28. Shortly after his appointment to the office of the distribution proposed in Fig. 2. (No attempt has
gardedessceauxin 1722, d'Armenonville was given by been made to conjure up the style of the panelling;
his fellow secretaires du roi a set of the Beauvais the intention is merely to explore possible patterns
tenture chinoise which at his death was stored in a in the arrangement of the figural elements.) My
cupboard at the hotel d Armenonville. See A.N. 6AP warm thanks to David Lloyd-Jones for generating the
12 IAD, J.-J.-B.Fleuriau d Armenonville, 22 Decem- drawing.
ber 1728, item 316, fol. 981".On the series see E. 31. These two prints, both by Aubert, are filled
A. Standen, 'The Story of the Emperor of China: A out to the edges in a way that suggests a tighter
Beauvais Tapestry Series', The MetropolitanMuseum framing analogous to that of at least two of the
of Art Journal, xi, 1976, pp. 103-17, esp. 114; C. overdoors. Claude III Audran's later scheme with
Bremer-David, French Tapestriesand Textilesin theJ. Nicolas Lancret for the cabinet dore at the hotel
Paul GettyMuseum,Los Angeles 1997, pp. 80-97. Peyrenc de Moras (1724) included paintings inset
29. On the prints see Dacier, Vuaflart and Herold above mirrors in the manner I am suggesting here.
(as in n. 1), in, pp. 106-09, nos 232~59- The authors See Scott (as in n. 6), fig. 154.
maintain that this is the most common arrangement 32. The painting was auctioned at Sotheby s,
in surviving bound sets. M. Roland Michel, 'Watteau New York on 1 1 January 1996, lot 151; it was first
et les Figuresde differentescaracteres\in Antoine Watteau noticed and mentioned by Perrin Stein in 'Boucher's
( 1 684-1 j'2i): Le peintre,son tempset sa legende,ed. F. Chinoiseries:Some New Sources, BurlingtonMagazine,
Moureau and M. Morgan Grasselli, Paris 1987, pp. cxxxviii, September 1996, pp. 598-604 (599 n. 8).
117-27, notes the importance of the arrangement Marianne Roland Michel is convinced it is by
of the plates of the caracteres,to sustain the viewer's Watteau but some uncertainty remains as to whether
attention. For the ReceuilJuliennesee above, n. 1. the canvas formed part of the La Muette cabinetor
30. This follows the arrangement proposed by was a later repetition by the artist; see her 'Exoticism
Jean Cailleaux for the panels at the hotel de Nointel. and Genre Painting in Eighteenth-Century France',
See his 'Decorations by Antoine Watteau for the in TheAge of Watteau,Chardin,and Fragonard:Master-
hotel de Nointel', Burlington Magazine, cm, March pieces of French GenrePainting, ed. C. B. Bailey, P.
1961, supplement, pp. i-v. Cailleaux's reconstruction Conisbee and T. W. Gaehtgens, exhib. cat. (National
assigned significance to the different angles of the Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery, Wash-
platforms supporting the central cartouches which, ington DC; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemalde-
he argued, divided the panels equally into upper galerie, 2003-04), New Haven, CT and London
and lower tiers. No such structural features dominate 2003, pp. 106-19, esp. 115. The trompeVoeilframe
Watteau's chinoiseriesbut the smaller scale and less may have formed part of the decoration (less ex-
defined backgrounds of Boucher's etchings suggest pensive than carving) or could have been added
that they might have occupied the upper register, after the dismantling of the scheme to transform a
while the larger and fuller format of Jeurat's warrant decorative work into a cabinet picture. I have not
perhaps the lower. This at least has been the logic of been able to examine the work directly.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 197

Figure3. Attributedto AntoineWatteau,'ChineseMusician',c. 1708-15, oil on canvas,

24-7 x 19-2 cm (Privatecollection,NewYork, Sotheby'sLondon)

and rose draperies, faded strawhat, blush pink feathers and foliage- are absolutely
consistent with Watteau's decorative schemes, notably for the cabinetat the hotel de
Nointel, executed from around 1708.33
As my reconstruction of the cabinetfurther suggests, I side with the view that
the prints reproduce no more than the central motifs of an arabesque scheme,34the
ornamental components of which are partiallyindicated in the overdoor 'Idole de la

33. On the hotel de Nointel see Cailleaux(as in and Gopin (asin n. 3), pp. 29-32, and RolandMichel
n. 30); and Rue de VUniversite, exhib. cat. (Institut in 'Exoticismand Genre Painting' (as in n. 32), p.
Neerlandais),Paris1987, pp. 186-88. 115, who believe the figures not to have been situ-
34. Here I follow A. Brookner, 'Chinoiserie in ated at the centre of arabesquesbut ratherfloating
French Painting', Apollo,lxv, June 1957, p. 254; on pools of black lacquer. This second thesis was
Macchiaand Montagni(as in n. 27), pp. 92-93, no. advanced by Dacier, Vuaflartand Herold on the
26; Posner (as in n. 3), p. 59; and the earlierinter- evidence of La Villageoise(current whereabouts
pretationof MarianneRolandMichelin Watteau(as unknown), a lacqueredworkbyWatteau,reproduced
in n. 3), p. 279. I am in disagreementwith Dacier, Juliennewith a legend indicatingthat it
in the Receuil
Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), 1, p. 26, Eidelberg was then in the collection of d'Armenonville'sson,
198 KATIESCOTT

Figure4. MichelAubertafterWatteau,'Idole de la DeesseKiMaoSao', 1731, etchingand engraving

(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

Deesse Ki Mao Sao' (Fig. 4). Adoration is being performed on platforms of strap-
work stifflyoverhung with aprons of a scalloped design and looselyjoined by a finely
stylisedgarland.Such ornament belongs to a genre of decoration known as grotesque
or arabesque, in which the three-dimensional world of figurative representation
is caught, delimited, even undone by the flat tactics of an incursive ornamental
surround. Watteau's 'Empereur chinois' and 'Divinite chinoise' (Fig. 5),35 etched
after drawings, possibly rejected ideas for the scheme, reveal more fully the com-
plexity and comic potential of a disjunctive interplaywhich remains largely implicit
in the curtailed testimony of the La Muette overdoor. To the evidence of the

the comte de Morville,and whichtheyproposedhad circumstancewhich seems to belie the contention

servedas an 'echantillon'or sample,to experiment that the comte was sincerely attached to it. De
with the lacquerprocessbefore workstartedon the Morville's picture cabinetwas dominated rather by
cabinet.However,this painting appears in neither 16th- and 17th-centurymastersof the Italian and
Jeanne Gilbert's nor d'Armenonville'sinventories Northernschools. Only a few Frenchartistsfound a
and therefore cannot have passed to de Morville place (see A.N. 6AP 10 IAD, Charles-Jean-Bap tiste
by decent. This seems severelyto compromisethe Fleuriau,comte de Morville,3 March 1732, items
hypothesis recently endorsed and elaborated by 326 ['Mignard']and 328 ['Robert']), though de
Eidelberg and Gopin (ibid., pp. 30-31), that Morville's bed-chamber was densely hung with
Watteau's Chinese figures were also painted on pastels,some by RosalbaCamera (items329, 330).
lacquer.By the time of de Morville's death in 1732, 35. Dacier,Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), in,
La Villageoisewas no longer in his collection, a nos 134, 135.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 199

Figure5. GabrielHuquierafterWatteau,'Divinitechinoise',c. 1731, etchingand engraving

(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

interrupted strapline at the right edge of 'Ki Mao Sao'- which first prompted the
argument in the literature that China was played out in the cabinetalong its original
extension, that is according to arabesque rules- we can add the low horizon lines,
the partial silhouetting of figures against flat, empty sky and the cursory treatment
of foregrounds in some of the upright prints: features which suggest fidelity to an
original vignette, and resistance on the part of the reproductive etchers, Francois
Boucher notably, to fill out or complete the compositions in the topographical spirit
of their assumed titles.36
The most plausible explanation for the excision of the arabesqueornament from
the reproductions published by Chereau and Surugue is their likely attribution not
to Watteaubut to Claude III Audran, chief exponent of the genre at the turn of the
century. Watteau had joined Audran's workshop sometime around 1708 and had
contributed figurativeelements to Audran's designs, continuing to collaborate with
him long after having set up independently.37Among the hundreds of drawingsfrom

36. FollowingDacier,Vuaflartand Herold (as in were added on the initiativeof the publisher,speci-
n. 1), iv, p. 106, Eidelbergand Gopin (as in n. 3), p. ficallyfor the printmarket.
38, suggest that the titles accompanyingthe prints 37. On Watteau's career as a decorativepainter
were probablyan originalpart of the decorationat during and beyond his apprenticeshipwith Claude
La Muette, 'either within the painted scheme or III Audran see L. de Foucaud, 'Antoine Watteau,
perhapsin the framingelements'.However,no other peintre d' arabesques', Revue de Vartancien et moderne,
schemebyAudranand/or Watteauincorporatestext xxiv, 1908, pp. 431-40; and xxv, 1909, pp. 49-59,
in this way.It seems much more likelythat the titles 129-40.
2oo KATIESCOTT

Figure6. ClaudeIIIAudran,designfor a ceiling, c. 1708-16, red chalk (Photo:HansThorwid,

Nationalmuseum,Stockholm)

Audran's workshop38are a group of sketches of a decidedly oriental flavour, one of

the more finished of which is inscribed on the back, in an eighteenth-century hand,
precisely but faintly, 'Chinois'.39The reverse of another bears on the absolute right-
hand edge the interrupted annotation 'cabinet de La Muette'.40Thus, if Audran is
known to have worked with Louis Cheron on the orangerieat La Muette during a
later campaign for de Berry,41these fragile and fragmentary inscriptions further

38. Audran'sdesignswere bought afterhis death the drawingsthat I looked at. From the position of
in 1734 by Daniel Cronstrom,the Swedish,ambas- the annotationson the sheets, these did not seem to
sador. In 1949 the collection was given by his be of a kind made by a collector.That is to say,the
descendantsto the Nationalmuseumat Stockholm inscriptionsdo not presentthemselvesas labels;they
and a year later an exhibition of a selection of the are too close to the design area. Moreover,they
drawingswasheld at the BnFin Paris.The catalogue correspondto the scriptof invoicesin the collection,
remainsthe principalstudyof the collection;see R.- drawn up on the backs of some drawingsor on
A. Weigert et al., ClaudeIII Audran(1658-1734), separate sheets (see e.g. CCIV/397 and CC/1084
dessinsduNationalmuseum deStockholm, Paris1950. verso). In all this, they stronglyinvoke their author,
39. Nationalmuseum,Stockholm,inv. CCII/195. ClaudeIIIAudran.
The writingappearedto be by the same hand in all 40. Nationalmuseum,Stockholm,inv. CCV/177.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 201

Figure7 (left). ClaudeIIIAudran,designfor a narrowwallpanel, c. 1708-16,

red chalk (Photo:HansThorwid, Nationalmuseum,Stockholm)

Figure8 (above).EdmejeuratafterWatteau,'Filledu RoyaumedAva', 1731,

etchingand engraving(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The British
Museum)

support the idea of a preceding collaboration with Watteau. Taking the Audran
drawings and the Watteau prints together we can, moreover, note their shared
vocabularyand compatible structure. For example, in the detail of one of Audran's
projected ceilings (Fig. 6) we recognise the conically hatted acolyte of Watteau's
overdoor (Fig. 4), prostrate still along a line - which leads once again to a female

41. See BnF MS fonds francais7801, Papiersde collection;see R.-A.Weigertet al., ClaudeIIIAudran
Cotte, fols 159-60; ains the principal study of the ... dessins(as in n. 38), p. 64.
2O2 KATIE SCOTT

Figures 9 (left), 10 (right). Claude III Audran, design for a wall panel; and Edme Jeurat after Watteau,
'Chef des Samar de Tlevang Raptan', 1731, etchings and engravings (Photographs: Hans Thorwid,
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; and Department of Prints and Drawings, The British Museum)

deity, cross-legged, though with a parasol, not fan; she perches this time upon the
back of an elephant. Two more drawingssuggest the manner of the coming together
of figure and ornament upon the walls: in one (Fig. 7), a China-girl, possibly 'du
Royaume d'Ava' (Fig. 8), stands between C-scrolls, one item in a cascade of some-
times exotic things, hinting that the horizontality, the strolling movement of her
later, printed, self was perhaps of the printmaker Edme Jeurat's invention. In the
other (Fig. 9), we recognise if not the 'Chef des Samarde Tlevang Raptan' (Fig. 10),
his physical type, with a decidedly more luxurious and intentionally Imperial setting
unfolding about him.
Exact correspondence between project and record, or preparatory drawings
and printed reproductions, is too much to expect because Audran left the design of
figures to those whose expertise he called upon. His compositional drawingsserved
rather to fix the theme and determine the spaces in which those figures were to
perform. However, the recurring motifs in the prints and drawings,and the comple-
mentary interchange of vignettes and frames, strengthen the argument for the
d'Armenonvilles having commissioned an arabesque decorative scheme. Moreover,
together they enable a fuller imagining of the ensemble, on the basis of which the
following analysis of the cabinet'smaking and meaning may now more confidently
proceed.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 20s

2.1. Origami
To explore the manner of its creation and the mood which accrued to the cabinet
by virtue of that process, I want to propose a pictorludens.Johan Huizinga, to be sure,
denied the very possibility of such a person. The materialityof paint, the concrete
limits of the support, the inertia of forms, the opacityof visuallanguage combined, he
felt, absolutely 'to forbid' the 'plastic artist'free play- that is, flights of imagination,
improvisationand virtuoso performance.42Reinforcement for such scepticism in the
specific case of French culture at the turn of the eighteenth century is indeed readily
to hand. We need look no further than the Academie,still under the mandate of
CharlesLe Brun, the rigidityof its institutionalisedpracticestending to sink academic
form, weighing it down with convention, the concreteness of observedmatter and the
woe of epic truths.43In Watteau, however,we broach an outsider, an artistfor whom
the painting of arabesqueswas construed as amounting to little more than a game,
whose relationship with his masterwas described as competitive but not Oedipal and
whose work seemingly defied gravity,his designs proceeding by lightness towards
provisionaland playful resolution.
The 'lives' or contemporary biographies of Watteau tell of a misspent youth, of
talent abused as a commercial hack and of apprenticeship betrayed, his first master
Claude Gillot's initiation amounting to little more than an introduction to the salty
pleasures of the fair.44From this perspective, the next step, across the threshold into
Audran's workshop at the Luxembourg, that is, into the world of a privileged court
artisan, represented a step up.45Yet, with the wisdom of hindsight, Watteau's con-
temporarybiographersnoted that his education neverthelesscontinued to be at odds
with his destiny; a detour. Drawing on the topos of the autodidact, they plotted
Watteau's apprenticeship as a series of wrong turns and diversions which required
negotiation and resistance before mastery was finally won.46Thus, for Pierre-Jean
Mariette, Jean de Julienne and the comte de Caylus,the Luxembourg assumed the
shape of a crossroads, the arabesque and Rubens's Medici cycle constituting com-
peting attractions and sign-posting alternative roads.47Officially, publicly, Watteau
chose the arabesque, promptly and lightly matching his figures to Audran's orna-
ment.48Yet his commitment was never ultimate, his loyalty alwaysshort of total.49

42. J. Huizinga,HomoLudens:a Studyof thePlay 46. On the autodidact and other topoiin the
Element London 1970, pp. 182-96.
in Culture, heroisationof the artistvia tales of his youth and
43. For a generalsurveyof thisfin-de-siecle
gravitas vocation,see E. Krisand O. Kurz,Legend,Mythand
in painting see e.g. A. Blunt,Art and Architecture
in Magicin theImageof theArtist,New Haven, CT and
France1500-ijoo, revisedby R. Beresford,London London 1979, pp. 13-60.
!999'PP- 256-72. 47. See J.-P. Mariette,'Watteau',from his Abece-
44. See the collection compiled and edited by dario,vi, in Vies(as in n. 44), p. 3; J. de Julienne,
Pierre Rosenberg, Viesanciennesde Watteau,Paris 'Abrege de la vie d'Antoine Watteau', from his
1984. On Watteau'sapprenticeshipwith Gillot see Figures de differentscaracteres(1726), in Vies, p. 13;
M. Eidelberg,'Watteauin the Atelier of Gillot', in Caylus, 'La vie d'Antoine Watteau' (conference 3
AntoineWatteau(1684-1721): catalogueraisonnedes February1748), in Vies,pp. 60-62.
dessins,ed. P. Rosenbergand L.-A.Prat, Paris and 48. See Gersaint,'Abrege',in Vies(as in n. 44), p.
Milan1996, pp. 45-47. 32-
45. Edme Gersaint, in particular, contrasted 49. For a discussionof the relationshipbetween
Watteau'sexperience chezGillot and chezAudran. rules and commitmentin games that I have found
See his 'Abregede la vie d'AntoineWatteau'(1744), suggestivehere, see B. Suits, TheGrasshopper:Games,
repr.in Vies(as in n. 44), p. 32. ForAudran'sstudio Lifeand Utopia,Edinburgh1978, pp. 27-29.
at the time of Watteau'sapprenticeshipsee Dacier,
Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), pp. 19-24.
2O4 KATIE SCOTT

Surreptitiously,he also studied the Old Masters (Rubens) and Nature (the Luxem-
bourg gardens).50In the 'lives' it is this extra-curricularpastime which is represented
as the central, sustained and creative experience- that is, the work- of the Audran
years;arabesquesfigure, by contrast, as little more than an occasional and marginal
diversion.
The inferences of play function in these narrativesto discredit a genre of paint-
ing which, though prized by court and nobility for its refinement and virtuosity,was
regarded by the Academieas too slight and ornamental to warrantthe definition art.
Edme Gersaint,writing, by contrast,from the vantage point of a merchant operating
in the same 'economy of delight' as Audran,51observed this fashionable creativity,
and the dynamics in the workshop, in an altogether more positive light. He noted
that 'Mr. Audran, who made his business from the facility and quickness of our
young friend's brush, (in turn) made his [Watteau's] life easy in proportion to the
profits occasioned by his works'.52Hierarchy,and the exploitation it makes possible,
is clearly articulated here, but so too is recognition- real, financial recognition- of
nearly-matched and complementary talents. Their relationship was shaped not by
emulation, the reproduction of the master in the desiring pupil, but by collabor-
ation, or the synergyof different specialisations.Watteauwas, as it were, drawn into
Audran's design as into a game; and fashioned his performance not according to
Audran's example but according to his rules.53
Moving from words to works, we can note that a multiplicity of hands is often
discernibly at play in the workshop drawings, without exact identification of the
'players'alwaysproving possible.54Moreover,beneath the surfacepatternsof co-oper-
ation we can further observe the complex waysin which the paper support was often
folded, then opened out, occasionally refolded in another direction, and unfolded
once again. Sometimes the fold segments the design into options (Fig. 6), sometimes
it completes it (Fig. 1 1) by the reproduction of a ghostly mirror image, technically
known as a counter-proof.55Understanding this practice seems simple enough:
folding achieves economies of paper, drawingand imagination. However, the fold is

50. See Caylus, 'La vie', in Vies(as in n. 44), p. 62. 53. R. Rawdon Wilson makes this distinction in
For a recent discussion of Watteau's drawings after games in order to draw attention to the intertextuality
Rubens during his apprenticeship chezAudran see A. of play. See his In Palamedes' Shadow:Explorationsin
'
Wintermute, Le Pelerinagea Watteau:an Introduction Play, Game,and NarrativeTheory,Boston 1990, p. 5.
to the Drawings of Watteau and his Circle', in Watteau 54. P. Bjurstrom, French Drawings: Eighteenth
and his World:FrenchDrawingfrom iyoo to 1750, New Century,Stockholm 1982, nos 1252-66, reattributed
York 1999, p. 22. some of the Audran corpus to Watteau, but without
51. The phrase 'economy of delight' is taken from raising the more challenging question of whether
Michael Sturmer, 'An Economy of Delight: Court individual drawings combine the work of the two
Artisans of the Eighteenth Century', Business History artists. Some of the drawings, it seems to me, merit
Review, Lin.4, 1979, pp. 496-528. It seems to me such inquiry. In particular, two versions of the design
that many of the characteristics Sturmer identifies for the Singerie at Marly have aroused conflicting
with priviledged court furniture makers - the highest views over authorship; see Bjurstrom no. 1252. Most
standards of craftsmanship, specialisation, flexibility, recently Wintermute (as in n. 50), p. 20, has cast
design innovation - are ones which readily apply to doubt over whether any of the drawings at Stock-
Audran. holm exhibit 'the fluency and freedom we expect
52. '. . . M. Audran qui trouvait son compte dans la from Watteau, even at this early point of his career'.
facilite et l'execution prompte du pinceau de notre 55. On the technique of counter-proofing (though
jeune Peintre, lui rendit la vie plus aisee a proportion not in relation to ornamental design) see M. Roland
du benefice que les ouvrages lui occasionnaient.' Michel, Les dessinsfrancais au XVJIPsiecle,Paris 1987,
Gersaint, 'Abrege', in Vies(as in n. 44), pp. 32-33. pp. 14-22.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 205

Figure11. ClaudeIIIAudran,designfor a ceilingwitha Chineseterm,c. 1708-16, red chalk

(Photo:HansThorwid, Nationalmuseum,Stockholm)

productive in other, less obvious waystoo. It forms a line or crease beneath the lines
of the composition, an invisible, structuring and magical furrow which enfolds the
disparate,often contradictoryelements of the design, resolving or dramatisingrapid
transitions between ornament and figure. As such, it is a discipline of composition
attributable to the author, the master of the whole; an instrument for efficiently
managing creativity- his own and especially that of his collaborators.In other words,
it constitutes,at the pictorial level, a net or trap that prescribesinterplay,comparable,
at the social level, to the 'god-games' by which Audran sought to retain Watteau in
his studio by belying his burgeoning talent as a painter of autonomous tableaux.^

56. The phrase 'god-games'is Robert Rawdon Audran's detainingstrategiescf. Gersaint,Abrege',

Wilson's(asin n. 53). Fora contemporaryaccountof in Vies(as in n. 44), p. 33.
2o6 KATIESCOTT

It is, moreover, these unseen paper folds, echoed in the painted unfolds of
the finished panels, that engender the arabesque's distinctive lightness, its visual
wit.57Their structuring hold is weightless, floating just below or just above the
surface, and the potentially infinite extension of their reach beyond the paper or
painted edge denies the material limit of the support. The whiteness of the ground
appropriately qualifies these folds as 'Oriental' in Gilles Deleuze's terms, because
they effect, in his words, a scission between fullness and emptiness rather than figure
and background;58which is another wayof sayingthat the arabesquewas constructed
with holes. Weight was erased from the composition, leaving an airybut robust lattice-
work to be partially in-filled with shimmering detail. The result is a dimensional
lightness in which a line (strapwork)is alwaysmore than a line yet less than a plane,
and a plane (vignette) alwaysexceeds itself but falls short of full, coherent three-
dimensionality. The liveliness created by the oscillation between spatial geometries
finds parallelsalso in a procedural lightness, in the concision and agile inventiveness
of Audran's conception and the quick-spiritednessof Watteau'sbrush (Fig. 3).59
Audran's method of composition might usefully be described as 'iterative',
which would be to note that his designs were generated by a finite number of shapes
and forms, repeated on larger and finer scales, variously orientated and variously
combined- the 'C shape being a notable case in point. Such invention by repeated
feedback of standardelements involveda minimum investment of effort and content;
and the economy, the thriftiness in which the complex arabesque form was thus
paradoxicallyrooted contributes still further to the overall effect of lightness. More-
over, so stable yet so flexible an ornamental system facilitated the assimilation of
novelties. To the classical repertoire of gods, goddesses and grotesque creatures
might be added, as fashion demanded, popular charactersfrom the theatrede lafoire
and fabulous figures from the East.
That the arabesquecould assimilatesource materialof infinite 'otherness' points
to another sense in which it is iterative.'Iteration'has been used to define a property
of language as well as of geometry. Specifically, it refers to the process by which a
word (or in this case, a motif, or mark) by virtue of repetition, that is in the full-
ness of use, becomes detached from its original referent, drifts awayindeed, from
any determinate meaning.60Becoming ornamental may represent an extreme and
explicit instance of linguistic slide, of the concreteness of origin giving way to

57. Minguet (as in n. 6), pp. 221-22, has drawn expressions assez communes mais gracieuses, sa
attention to the qualityof lightness in Watteau;as couleur brillante,son travailleger.'See 'Watteau',in
has M. Vidal in Watteau'sPainted Conversations,New Vies(as in n. 44), p. 4 [myemphasis];Caylusasserted
Haven, CT and London 1992, esp. p. 156. For an that it was in fact specifically chezAudran that
inspiringdiscussionof 'lightness'as a literaryvalue 'Watteau... acquit une legeretedepinceauqu'exigent
see I. Calvino, Six MemosfortheNextMillennium,transl. lesfondsblancsou les fondsdoressurlesquelsAudran
P. Creagh,London 1996, pp. 3-29. faisaitexecuter ses ouvrages.''Lavie de Watteau',in
58. See G. Deleuze, 'The Fold', YaleFrenchStudies, Vies,p. 61 [my emphasis].In 'Viosseuou Musicien
lxxx, 1991, pp. 227-47; idem, TheFold:Leibnitzand chinois' (Fig. 3), lightnessis conspicuouslya matter
theBaroque, transl.T. Conley,London 2001, pp. 27- of brushwork - its freedom- but is also characteristic
38, and for a relatedand verysuggestivediscussion of the thinnessof the layersof paint:the motifsseem
of typesof game in relationto these same qualities, almost to float on the background,sky visible, for
ibid.,pp. 66-68. instance,throughbranchesand leaves.
59. Mariettepraised'La touche de son pinceau', 60. See J. Derrida, Marges de la philosophie,Paris
which'de meme que son crayonest desplusspirtuelles, !972,pp.376"78-
les tours de ses figures des plus agreables, ses
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 207

instability, to play. For the ceiling at La Muette Audran imagined Chinese figures
into herms or terms (Fig. 11), the process of transformation, of de-materialisation,
accentuated by the abstract form of the term's composition. He is made not of flesh
and blood but of triangles, from the tip of his pointed hat, via the inverted triangle
of his upper torso, through the triangular flare of his wide robe below a pinched
waist, to the sharp convergence of the shaft's lines in a point at his base. We recognise
in these interlocked and geometric-like forms the fine meshed strength of the inter-
lacing strapwork patterns, but to the weightlessness of the visual language has been
added a lightness, a brevity of meaning, the chain of association linking the Chinese
man in his native context to the China-term afloat on a French ceiling having been
spun out virtually beyond sense, to non-sense. The arabesque served to reduce
difference to a matter of bodiless, ethereal form. Moreover, Audran's and Watteau's
scheme - with its 'parasol canopies suspended in mid-air', its 'temples open to the
skies' (as Hugh Honour describes them),61 its floating deities- made an emblem of
lightness, a Chinese emblem to rival the flying carpets and the puffed, lamp-genii
of the hugely popular Arabian Nights, published in 1704 by Antoine Galland.62
To recapitulate briefly, we can suggest that in the creation of the La Muette
cabinet Watteau and Audran each played a hand: both that they collaborated; and
that they pursued keenly competitive interests- in Watteau's case the honing of
skills and the making of court connections, and in Audran's the capturing of talent
necessary to his artistic projects. The agonistic nature of the social relations in the
Luxembourg workshop found a parallel in the ludic character of the arabesque
invented there. I would suggest, moreover, that its lightness, liveliness and potential
limitlessness, together with the virtuoso realisation of its forms by Watteau's 'spiritual'
touch, articulated those very flights of fantasy which Huizinga (as noted at the begin-
ning of this section) regarded as axiomatic of play.63

2.2. Charades
The words chinoiserieand arabesque imply performance: the donning of a Chinese
manner, or Persian mask. The lightness of means and ends noted above has
reinforced the impression of pretence, or charade. The historiography of the genres
to which chinoiserieand the arabesque belong has thus, understandably, not been a
glorious one. Merely to play at difference, and in doing so to fall short of convincing
illusion, smacks of frivolity. Chinoiserieis a joke; even its sins have appeared petty and
trivial, unworthy of the effort to expose them. To put it another way, chinoiseriedoes
not obviously anticipate the mendacious and predominantly realist colonial discourse
which Edward Said and others have taught us to recognise and read.64 The exotic,
on the rare occasions it has been found worthy of sustained theoretical reflection
by historians of eighteenth-century France, has assumed the form of the primitive

61. Honour (as in n. 3), p. go. 1712 and Les Avantures merveilleusesdu Mandarin
62. For a history of this publishing phenomenon Fum-Hoam, contes chinois, Paris 1716. My thanks to
see R. Schwab, L'auteur des Milks et une nuits: vie Rene Demoris for bringing these to my attention.
d 'Antoine Galland, Paris 1964. The success of the 63. Cf. Huizinga (as in n. 42).
book gave birth to imitations, notably in this case to 64. Classically, E. W. Said, Orientalism,London
Chinese ones. See Thomas-Simon Gueullette's Les 1978; idem, Cultureand Imperialism,London 1993.
100 1 nuits et un quart d'heure. Contes tartares,Paris
2o8 KATIESCOTT

Figure12. MichelAubertafterWatteau,'Habillementsdes habitantsde la provincede Hou Kouan',173 1,

etchingand engraving(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

in relation to which France appears as the incarnation of a culture at once more

ancient and more advanced in sophistication.65Watteau's and Audran's polished
Chinese figures, however, have little visibly in common with, for example, baron
Lahontan's noble Huron Indians, brought to the attention of the French public at
around the same time.66In the 'thickly' described particularityof their customs and
dress, Watteau'sand Audran's 'chinois' exhibit, if anything, an extreme refinement,
an excess of culture, which implicitlypositions French culture as ajustemilieubetween
the primitive and the civilised. As such, I shall argue that the rhetoric of chinoiserie
veered towardsthe comic. In so doing I take issue with those who, like Pierre Martino,
maintained that the prestige of long distance travel and the absence of detailed
knowledge of the Far East in the late seventeenth century delayed the entry of the
Oriental into French comedy.67Martinowas only concerned with instances in which

65. See notablyT. Todorov, On HumanDiversity: 67. P. Martino, UOrient dans la litteraturefrancaise
Nationalism, Racism and Exoticismin French Thought, au XVIP et XVJIPsiecles,Paris 1906, pp. 225-52. See
transl.C. Porter,Cambridge,MAand London 1993, also Ting Tchao-Ts'ing, Les descriptionsde la Chinepar
pp. 264-352. lesfrancais1650-1750, Paris1928;J. Dehergne, S.J.,
66. Louis-Armandde Lornd Arce de Lahontan, 'Voyageursvenus a Paris au temps de la marine a
Nouveaux voyages de Mr. le baron Lahontan dans voiles et l'influence de la Chine sur la litterature
VAmeriqueseptentrionale,The Hague 1703 (modern francaisedu XVIIIesiecle', Monumenta Serica,xxm,
edn ed.J. Collin,Montreal1983). 1964, pp. 372-96.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 209

Figure 13. Michel Aubert after Watteau, 'Habillements de ceux du Soutchovene', 1731, etching and
engraving (Department of Prints and Drawings, The British Museum)

audiences were explicitly engaged to laugh at the Chinese; he overlooked, I think,

those subtler instances in which laughing with and through the figure of the China-
man gave rise to less pointed satire. By the 1690s Chinese characters had, in fact,
emerged as a reasonably familiar type at the CommediadelVarteand the Paris fairs.
The comparisons between theatre and painting which I offer below are intended
primarilyto establish a context for the reception of d'Armenonville's cabinet.^I am
certainly not suggesting direct influence between plays and arabesques; though
Watteau's interest in the CommediadelVarteis of course well documented from the
time of his apprenticeship in Gillot's studio.69What follows is, rather, an attempt to
understand the comedy played out in the cabinetat La Muette.70

68. The plays by Jean-Francois Regnard and and sustained appeal of the commediadelVarteand
Charles Dufresny which have been my focus were it therefore seems reasonable to propose that the
written and performed before the notorious expul- characterisation of China and the Chinese estab-
sion of the Comedieitalienne in 1697. It is therefore lished there informed the interpretation of Audran's
unlikely that as performed plays they had any impact and Watteau's decorative scheme. On the editions of
on either the production or the reception of the the plays see A. Calame, Regnard:sa vie et son oeuvre,
cabinet.However, the plays were published by Evariste Paris i960, pp. 141-42, 379-82.
Gherardi in 1694 and then again in 1700, 1717 69. Crow (as in n. 6), pp. 57-60, is the most
and 1734, and pirate editions appeared in 1695, suggestive and developed discussion of the relation-
1701, 1707 and 1721. The number of these official ship between Watteau, Gillot and the theatre. It is
and unofficial publications indicates the widespread perhaps worth adding that one of the playwrights
 2io KATIE SCOTT

The early, comic form of Orientalism that I have in mind does not take the
form of caricature.Indeed, from the outset, the nature of the arabesque experience
would seem to preclude it: surrounded on all sides by Chinese figures, ensnared from
above by arabesque patterns, the viewer of the cabinetfinds it impossible to distance
him or herself, to get the measure of this other, to secure a vantage point from which
to descry, desire, or pity the unfolding scene. The 'real' world may have suffered a
comic degradation to the status of a game, but it was one whose form impelled
participation.71Such decoration incorporates the viewer physicallyand psychically,
blurring the line between the subject and the object of fun in a manner wholly
consistent with early-modernhonneteideals of mockery which invoked its integrative
function- a rired'acceuil-requiring of the elite that it was able to take as well as to
make a joke.72Questions of distance, movement and orientation, of position, are, I
shall contend, subtly raised by Watteau's scheme, the more so since the status and
function of a cabinet,or closet, add a social dimension to the ambiguityof the spatial
and psychicrelations of self and other: it constituted a place that is at once peripheral
- a room set apart- and focal: the innermost of interior spaces.73The crudely binary
relations of self and other, centre and margin, indigenous and exotic in colonialism
thus fail to account adequately for their correlation in chinoiserie.Using 'charade'
in its literal rather than pejorative sense, I want to suggest rather that what most
characterises the latter's articulation of difference is the absolute uncertainty with
which it deals with these issues. D'Armenonville's cabinetput equivocation or guess-
work into play: the 'Chi - na' of chinoiseriearticulated syllabically,so to speak, in an
essentiallynon-narrativeor ornamental performance in parts.
Taking the overdoors as representative of the larger ensemble, for a moment,
we note immediately that the compositions break up into pairs: those ostensibly
concerned with the quotidian dress and customs of the Hou Kouan and Soutcho-
vene provinces (Figs 12, 13); and those dedicated to the worship of the idols Ki Mao
Sao and Thvo Chvu (Fig. 4 and below, Fig. 2 1). Juxtapositions of sacred and profane
were also present, though less dramaticallystaged, in the paintings upon the walls:

discussedbelow, CharlesDufresny,wasverypossibly thatis denied tojokes (pp. 428-29). In thissense,the

knownto Watteausince the twoshareda fascination cabinetbelongs, as we shall see, to the categoryof
withPersiaand Chinaand, at a laterdate, a common thejoke. On disinterestedness or detachmentand the
acquaintance in Antoine de La Roque. Charles humorousattitude,see J. Guillaumin,'Freudentre
DufresnyinvitedLa Roque to join him as editor of deux topiques:le comique apresL'Humour(1927),
the Mercure deFrancein 1721. On Dufresny's tastefor une analyse inachevee', in Revuefrancaisede psych-
the exotic as expressed in the oriental tales pub- analyse,xxxvii, 1973, pp. 633-35, 640-41.
lished in the Mercure(under his editorshipif not his 72. The phrase'rired'acceuil'is ErnestDupreel's
pen) see F. Moureau, Le Mercuregalant du Dufresny ('Le probleme sociologique du rire', Revue
(1710-1714) ou lejournalismea la mode,Oxford 1982, philosophiquede la Franceet de Vetranger,
cvi, 1928, pp.
pp. 63-68. 213-60) and has been by used to describe the
70. On playas a conceptualmodel for the comic conventions of late 17th-centurylaughter by A.
see M. Gutwirth, Laughing Matter: an Essay on the Richardot, 'Rire et hospitalite dans les salons de
Comic, Ithacaand London 1993, pp. 79-82. l'age classique', Espaces domestiques et prives de
7 1. On the significanceof distanceto the humor- Vhospitalite,ed. A. Montandon, Clermont-Ferrand
ous attitudesee SigmundFreud,Humour(1927), in 2000, pp. 53-63. For a further elaborationof this
the PenguinFreudLibrary,xiv, London 1985, pp. positive constructionof railleriesee also eadem, Le
427-33. The distinctionFreud makes between the riredeslumieres,Paris2002, pp. 83-96.
joke and the comic on the one hand, and humour 73. See A. Merot, 'Le cabinet, decor et espace
on the other,involvesdistance:whilejokes remainin d'illusion',XVIPsiecle,clxii, 1989, pp. 37-52; idem,
the thickof pleasure,humourassertsdistance- from Retraitesmondaines:aspectsde la decorationinterieurea
which it derivesa 'grandeur','dignity','elevation', Paris, au XVFPsiecle,Paris 1990.
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 2 11

Figures14 (left), 15 (right).BoucherafterWatteau,'TaoKouou Religieusede Tau'and 'Femmedu Royaume

de Necpal', 1731, etchingsand engravings(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

the mounting of the prints in Julienne's Receuil,two to a page, suggests that Koui
Nou, a young Chinese beauty, found her place opposite the 'religieuse' Nikou,74and
that the cloistered Chinese Tao Kou (Fig. 14) confronted an elegant and worldly
Nepalese (Fig. 15). In the case of the overdoors, difference is teased into comic
contrast by the clash in formal languages deployed- a circumstance arising in part
from the cabinet's place in an enfiladeof rooms whose decoration included conven-
tionally painted tableauxabove adjoining doors.75The tangible world of place, dress
and customary pursuits and pleasures is rendered with a three-dimensional pro-
jection and mimetic precision designed to persuade us of the strange veracityof all
we see. The etherial world of idols, on the other hand, is incommensurate with our
own. Its ornamental discourse, far from imitating or representing reality,producesit.
In the alternativeworld so created, life thrives in two dimensions, the scale of figure
and ornament is reversed (the latter providing support for the former), idols become
lively and defy gravity,and elements commingle, earth behaving like water or air.
Moreover, in the absence of depth (actual and psychic), identities are conflated,
crushed: figures and ground simultaneously follow the lie of a pastoral land and
invoke the empire of Kan Xsi.

74. For this pair see the prints reproduced by while the arabesqueKi Mao Sao and Thvo Chvu
Dacier,Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), iv, pp. 242, (Figs4, 2 1) wouldhavecrownedother, or even false
243- doors in the depth and the difference of the
75. On this hypothesis the Hou Kouan and arabesqueroom. On the planning of 18th-century
Soutchovenetableaux(Figs 12, 13) would have been domestic architecturesee Scott (as in n. 6), pp.
situatedabove the doors communicatingwith these 103-09.
adjacent rooms, thereby maintaining continuity,
 212 KATIE SCOTT

We may note here, in a general way, that the physiognomy, poses and occu-
pations of Watteau's figures in their natural settings correspond suggestively with
those of the fete champetre, while remaining different in dress and accompanying
paraphernalia.Specifically,'Tao Kou' (Fig. 14), the Chinese acolyte, is vignetted into
a landscape more persuasivelyEuropean than Asian, in the background of which a
hybridfabriquecombines a classical, arcaded infrastructurewith the distinctive roof-
line of a Chinese temple. Moreover, the evidently Chinese fan she holds finds a
contrast in the tambourine in the foreground (the ornamental link, surely, to the
absent arabesque frame), an instrument which the French musical tradition also
claimed as indigenous.76
The Frenchness of Watteau's chinoisesbeneath their exotic attire has usually
been explained in terms of cultural blindness, a failure of sight. However, within
living memory Paris had directly experienced the visit of the ChineseJesuit Michael
Shen Fuzong (1684) and the sensational arrivalof the ambassadorsof Siam (1686),
reliable printed visual and verbal records of which were still in circulation in the
early eighteenth century.77Moreover, the images and accounts of China published
by FrenchJesuit missionariesfrom the late 1690s and the influx of Chinese artefacts
added further to the rich stock of knowledge available to artists.78Indeed, two of
Audran's projects for ceilings79suggest that the designer once toyed with the idea,
very possibly in connection with La Muette, of explicitly contrasting chinois and
chinoiserie
(see Fig. 16): a monkey, capped and legs crossed Easternstyle on a gigantic
acanthus-likescroll, and a cartouche within which Chinese figures and a pagoda are
drawn in a manner that invokes the figurativereserves on authentic blue and white
Kan Xsi porcelain.80It is unlikely, therefore, that Watteau was guilty of oversight.
Rather, he chose to substitute for a credible likeness an ambiguous image, a
condensation of self and other, comparable to the wittydoubleentendres accomplished
by masquerade,81most especially at the Commedia delVarteand the spectaclesde lafoire.

76. The tambourine made its appearance in pp. 121-40. For further prints of China and the
Europein the 15th centuryand by the 18th at least Chinese at the end of the 17th centuryand begin-
two distinctiveFrench regional types had evolved: ning of the 18th see those in the seriesOe 48 in the
the 'tambourinde Provence' and the 'tambourin Cabinetdes estampesat the BnF,Paris.
Basque'.At the turn of the 18th century the tam- 78. Of particularnote are Joachim Bouvet, S.J.,
bourine was introduced into both high and low L'estatpresentde la Chineenfigures,Paris 1697; and
urbanculturewhen the vogue for pastoralbrought Louis Le Comte, SJ., Nouveauxmemoires sur Vetat
champetreinstrumentssimilarlyinto fashion.See The presentdela Chine,2 vols,Amsterdam1696. Though
NewGroveDictionary of Music,ed. S. Sadie, London not illustratedthe Lettresedifianteset curieuses
ecrites
de la musiqueenFrance
2001, xxv, p. 55; Dictionnaire desMissionsetrangeres par quelquesmissionnaires
de la
auxXVTP etXVIIPsiecles,ed. M. Benoit,Paris1992, p. Compagnie deJesus(1702-1776) were significantin
660. Forthe tambourineas an instrumentat the fairs the shapingof opinion.
see C. Barnes,'Instrumentsand InstrumentalMusic 79. Stockholm, National Gallery, CCIII/102;
at the "Theatresde la foire",Recherchessurla musique CCIII/109 (illustrated).
v, 1965, pp. 142-68.
francaiseclassique, 80. Cf. Stockholm, National Gallery, CCII/32,
77. For a discussionof almanacsand illustrated a drawingof a quarter-sectionof a ceiling which
travelliteraturesee H. Belevitch-Stankevitch,Legout alludesto Chinesewaresmore abstractly,byworking
chinoisenFrance:au tempsdeLouisXTV, Paris19 1o, pp. in coloursassociatedwithChineseporcelainand silk,
210-55; for portraitengravingsof Shen Fuzongsee notablyblue and yellow.
T. N. Foss, 'The European Sojourn of Philippe 8 1. Jean I Berain's'Chinese'designsweresimilarly
Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong (1683-1692)' compromised.Daniel Cronstrom,writing to Nico-
in PhilippeCoupletSJ. (1623-1693). TheMan Who demus Tessin the Youngerin 1699, commentedon
BroughtChinato Europe,ed. J. Heyndrickx(Monu- the six 'desseinsChinois'which he wassending:'Us
menta NiponicaMonographs,xxn), Louvain1990, ne sont pas dans la purete du goust chinois, maisils
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 2 13

Figure16. ClaudeIIIAudran,designfor a ceiling,c. 1708-16, red chalk (Photo:HansThorwid,

Nationalmuseum,Stockholm)

In Jean-Frangois Regnard and Charles Dufresny's plays for the ComediensItaliens

du Roy,performed both at the hotel de Bourgogne in Paris and at Versailles,82the
figure of the Chinese is invariablytravestiedby the 'insolent, mocking, obsequious,
droll, and ... infinitely scatological' characterArlequin.83Such role-playingproduced
instant comedy because, as the engraved frontispiece to Les Chinoispartiallysuggests
(see Fig. 17), with his distinctive black mask, triangular patched costume and out-
landish manners,84Arlequin alwaysshowed through the part he was playing, thereby
undermining the seriousness of the theatrical illusion.85 Moreover, the visual

sont comme toutes ces productions agreablement 11,p. 315: 'insolent,railleur,plat,bouffon,et surtout
altereset appropriesa la tailleet a la danse.'Quoted infinimentordurier.'In LeDivorce(1688), Arlequin
from Les relationsartistiquesentrela Franceet la Suede, plays a Chinese ambassador,in L'Hommea bonne
1693- 1 J18: NicodemeTessinlejeuneetDaniel Cronstrom. fortune(1690) a 'prince Tonquin des Curieux'and
Correspondance, ed. R.-A. Weigert and C. Hernmarck, in LesChinois(1692) a Chinesedoctor,falsesuitorof
Stockholm 1964 (hereafter L 'arten Franceet en Suede), the fairIsabelle.
p. 254, letter no. 46. 84. EvaristeGherardi,Le Theatreitalien,6 vols,
82. On the performanceof the playsat the court Amsterdam 1721, iv, frontispiece to Les Chinois
see F. Moureau,'Lescomediens-italienset la cour de (facingp. 155). Arlequinis the figureto the left;the
France(1664-1697)', XVJPsiecle,cxxx/cxxxi, 1981, close hatchingof his face crudelydenotes the mask,
pp. 63-81. Among these wasa playentitledDisgraces the diamondsquareon his Chineserobe his habitual
d'Arlequin mi de la Chine,performedat Versailleson dress. For a descriptionof Arlequin's costume see
10 February1695 but for which no text appearsto Riccoboni(as in n. 83), 1,pp. 4-5.
havesurvived. 85. See W. E. Rex, The Attraction of the Contrary:
83. The characterisationis Luigi Riccoboni'sin Essays on the Literature of the French Enlightenment,
Histoiredu theatreitalien, 2 vols, 2nd edn, Paris 1731, Cambridge1987, pp. 59-60.
214 KATIESCOTT

italien,1721:Arlequinintroduces
from EvaristeGherardi,Le Theatre
Figure17. Frontispieceto LesChinois,
Roquillardto a Chinesepagode,etching and engraving( The BritishLibrary)

doubling was matched in speech by Arlequin's puns and witty neologisms, a salty
word-playdefended in the prologue to Les Chinoisby Apollo (himself travestied by
Columbine), who insists that 'all the most beautiful ideas in the world are two-
faced'.86Comedy arises out of the forced marriageof opposites:Arlequin the servant,
the ignorant, the vulgar,in the part of the master, the savant,the exotic. In Audran's
and Watteau's scheme the composites are less dramatically conflicted and less

86. Gherardi (as in n. 84), p. 159 (prologue, ostensible suitor of Isabelle, notes of his beloved:
scene II): 'Pour moy,je n'y vois que des mots tout 'J'ignore pas que la fille ne soit une fieffee Coquette;
pleins de sel, qui a la verite sont quelquefois a mais ... je la saismettreaux Magdelonettes.'Ibid.,p.
double entente: mais toutes les plus belles pensees 176 (act II, scene IV). On the word-playsee Calame
du monde ont deux faces, tant pis pour ceux qui ne (as in n. 68), pp. 207-24; F. Moureau, Dufresny,
les prennentque du mauvaiscote'. Laterin the play auteur dramatique(165J-1724), Paris 1979, pp.
Arlequin, now in the role of a Chinese doctor, 220-34.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 2 15

stridentlycomic because chinoiserie and the pastoralbelong to the culture of the high.
The union of sacred and profane in two of d'Armenonville's overdoors (Figs 4, 21)
is witty:a French coquette surfaces through divine Chinese folds and gestures, to
become farcical, absurd, in the context of the exaggerated devotion of her 'suitors'.
In the cabinet,as in the plays, China represents culture- but culture that has
bolted into an excess of refinement and fashion. The doubling of the sign is thus
deployed to expose the status of chinoiserieas mere surface: style or title rather than
content. Introducing Les Chinoisto his audience, Apollo seems to acknowledge the
superficial attraction of the Orient, implying that the play may fail to live up to
its authors' promise: the Italians,he remarks,call it La ComediedesComediens chinois-
but 'Cette Troupe-la est toujours magnifique en titres'.87The plot sets a Chinese
doctor, played by Arlequin, within a constellation of rivals for Isabelle's hand; he
personifies 'colifichet' or contrived sophistication, in comic contrast notably to the
huntsman's coarse rusticity and in fact to his would-be father-in-law,Roquillard's
petty archaism.88Making a display of his dower chest, a 'Cabinet de la Chine',
ArXequin- chinoisextracts from it his fellow-valetMezzetin, disguised as 'une pagode'
(a pagod or Chinese idol)89whom he presents to Roquillard- the scene of Gherardi's
frontispiece. In the exchange which follows the superfluity, the emptiness of this
eighteenth-century emblem of China, its status as mere form, is humorously
acknowledged:
Roquillard A pagod!Whatis a pagod?
Arlequin A pagod is .... a pagod. Whatthe devildo you wantme to say?
Roquillard Butwhatis it for? Does it do something?
Arlequin It also sings.90

To reiterate differently, chinoiserie

construed not only as useless91but as meaningless
the accoutrements of Eastern custom; these existed merely to entertain the Western
eye. It slyly invited publics and markets to laugh at themselves as devotees of an
absurd taste.
Mezzetin had been conjured up from a cabinetde la Chine'full of grotesque
Chinese figures';92and such cabinetsremained a characteristicfeature of the staging

87. Ibid., p. 156 (prologue, scene I). Quanti- 8c dans ce sens il est plus ordinairementfeminine.
tativelyspeaking,we can agree thatno Chinoisin fact Pagoded'or, Vilaine Pagode.Petite Pagode... De la
appearin the play,and though invokedin the plural vient que les curieuxdonnent aussile nom de Pagode
a singularChinese personagehas a significantpart aux petites idoles de porcelainsqui viennent de la
in the plot. Chine'.
88. In act I, scene IV Isabelle talks to her maid, 90. Gherardi(as in n. 84), iv, p. 179 (actII, scene
Columbine,of the qualitiesshe seeks in a husband. IV). R.: 'Une Pagode? Qu'est-ce que c'est qu'une
Firstamongthem he is to be 'joly'but not 'colifichet' Pagode?'A: 'Une Pagode est .... une Pagode. Que
(ibid.,pp. 167-68); andArlequin'sparadeof Chinese diablevoulez-vousqueje vous dise?'R: 'Maisa quoy
extravaganceis aimed preciselyat castinghis master est-elle propre?Scait-ellefaire quelque chose?' A:
Octaveas joly.Isabelle'stravestiedsuitorsdivide, in 'Ellechanteaussi.'
fact,into pairs,the Chinesedoctorand the huntsman 91. In Le Divorce(1688), act II, scene VI, the
findingtheiroppositesin one another,and the mud- alienation of form and function in chinoiserieis
lark soldier and the pompous tragedianacting in elaborated as a joke when Arlequin, the Chinese
parallelas twinnedinstancesof ridiculousheroism. ambassador,revealsat his leave-takingthat his hat is
89. According to Antoine Furetiere,Dictionnaire 'un Cabaretgarnide tassesa Caffepleines'.Gherardi
universel,The Hague 1701, 'Pagode'was originally (as in n. 84), 11,p. 120.
the Portuguesewordfor a Chinesetemple but 'il se 92. Gherardi(as in n. 84), iv, p. 178 (Le Chinois,
prendaussipour l'idole qu'on adoredansle temple, act II, scene IV): 'Le Cabinetde la Chine ou il etoit
216 KATIESCOTT

of 'Chinese' plays.93Alain-Rene Le Sage's later Arlequininvisible(1713) opens in the

cabinetdu Royde la Chineto which Arlequin had been conducted by the devil: 'There
were to be seen there a thousand precious things, among them three cross-legged
Pagods seated on a long table'.94It is perhaps difficult to get the comedy of excess in
the mere number of Chinese things invoked by stage directions, but likely that such
ornamental exaggeration constituted a visual analogue to the extravagantspeech,
stuffed with material metaphors, which was regularlyput into the mouths of Chinese
characters. 'I am', boasts the doctor in Les Chinois,'the pot-pourri of Doctrine, the
potted Meat of Letters, the salmagundi of all the Sciences';95in Uhommea bonne
fortune(1690), Arlequin informs his audience that the prince Tonquin des Curieux
has described Isabelle as 'a resplendent star of perfection', adding that 'if the tail of
her gown were any longer, he would mistake her for a comet';96in LeDivorce(1688),
the ambassadorof the Emperor of China (again played by Arlequin) complements
Columbine by proxy: 'I have no doubt that the sparks of your eyes ... falling ... on
the frizzen pan ... of his heart ... the powder of his love ... Madame, ... I bid you
good day'.97In the last instance, the parody of figurative language (here a firing
gun) is inter-cut with awkwardsilences and mockery targets not only excess but
ineptitude.98
To return to Audran's and Watteau's cabinet,the illusion of China is conjured
up there too by a multiplicityof exotic things: by long-handled ceremonial fans and
'feather dusters',99by shoe-string moustaches and conical hats, by elegant parasols
and pointed shoes, by strangelyshaped garden urns and curious musicalinstruments,
by the exotic animals and birds in Audran's proposals for ceilings, and in one case
by hatched rim patterns, imagined as an option for a border or cornice (Fig. 18).100
In the latter's arabesques mere profusion of repeated standard motifs alone

s'ouvre, 8c on le voit remply de figures Chinoises venanta tomber. . . surle bassinet. . . de son coeur . . .
grotesques'. le poudre de son amour ... Madame,je vous donne
93. It seemslikelythatone of the principalattrac- le bonjour.'
tions of exotic plays was the elaborate stage sets 98. On the dramatictechniques of mixing mis-
they necessitated.ArlequinMahomet,performed at chief and ineptitude see Calame (as in n. 68), pp.
Saint Laurentin 1714, seems, for instance, to have 223-24.
demanded quite complex stage machinery.See E. 99. Honour (as in n. 3) has noted the uncanny
Campardon,LesSpectacles delafoire,2 vols,Paris1977, likenessto 'featherdusters',a simileI haveborrowed
1,p. 93. because it captures something of the lightness of
94. Alain-ReneLe Sage and d'Orneval,Le theatre form and function. For a factual discussion of
de lafoire ou Voperacomique,3 vols, Paris 1721, 1, p. Chinesefans cf.J. Hutt, 'ChineseFans',TheConnois-
68: 'On voit mille choses precieuses,8c entr'autres seur,cc, April1979, pp. 236-41 (esp. 240). He notes
raretez,troisPagodesqui sont sur une longue table that although fans were important for Chinese
assiseslesjambescroisees.' society,the fan motif rarelyfeaturedin Chineseart
95. Gherardi(as in n. 84), iv, pp. 176-77 (act II, of this period. Thus in additionto some of the fans
scene IV):'Moy,le pot pourryde la Doctrine,le Pate in Watteau'sscenesbeing identifiableas export-ware,
en pot des belles Lettres,& le Salmigondisde toutes falsely stereotypicalof China (feathered fans were
les Sciences'. made for a western market only), the very act of
96. Ibid.,11,p. 366 ('scene des curiositez'):'C'est depicting fans in such profusionmarkedWatteau's
un compliment Tonquinois. II dit qu'elle est une enterprise as chinoiserieand not chinois.
Etoile resplendissantede perfection; et que si la 100. Nationalmuseum,Stockholm,inv. CCII/133.
queue de son manteau etoit plus longue il la Also of note in the drawing is Audran's use of
prendroitpour une Comette.' scattered dots or flower-headsas decorativein-fill
97. Ibid.,11,p. 119 (act II, scene VI): 'Madame,je betweenthe filigreelines of the arabesques,perhaps
vois dans vos yeux que vous brulez d'envie d'etre imitating patterned grounds found in oriental
Reine de la Chine,j 'en avertirayle Roymon Maitre, ceramics.
&je ne doute pas que les etincelles de vos yeux ...
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 2 17

Figure18. ClaudeIIIAudran,designfor a ceilingwithrim border,c. 1708-16, graphiteoverworkedwith

pen and ink (Photo:HansThorwid, Nationalmuseum,Stockholm)

impresses; in Watteau's vignettes that excess assumes further the form of an

exaggerated refinement. The 'Medecin chinois, I Geng' (Fig. 19), for example, sits
in a landscape, his legs scrolled under him in smoothly-drawncoupled curves, his
arms arranged more or less akimbo, the right hand elegantly articulated to follow
the arch of the knee, the oval silhouette of his top-knotted head perched orb-likeon
slimly tapered shoulders, an echo of the stepped obelisk in the left distance, while
in the foreground a pine advances on the right to shed its shade over him in the
graceful style of the ubiquitous Chinese parasol.101Lacking action or attribute to

101. A similarexaggeratedelegance maybe noted Religieusedu Pegor';see Dacier,Vuaflartand Herold

in Watteau's'LaoGine ou Vieillardchinois', 'Officer (as in n. 1), iv, nos 241, 253, 254.
Tartaredu pays des Kuskasi',and 'Talegrepatou
218 KATIESCOTT

Figures19 (left), 20 (right).FrancoisBoucherafterWatteau,'I Gengou Medecinchinois'and 'ChaoNiene ou

jeune chinois', 1731, etchingsand engravings(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

define him, Watteau's doctor is (like Regnard's and Dufresny's before him) an
ornament, a trinket (colifichet),an elegant instance of a comic archetype defined by
Henri Bergson as 'du mecanique plaque sur le vivant'.102 Occasionallyfigures stumble
from the status of witty toys into outright farce: in 'La Deesse Thvo Chvu' (Fig. 21),
for instance, the pose of the left-hand figure, head down, arms outstretched over
an abyss, suggests that this worshipper has been accidentally tripped into a kotow
by the close wrap of his gown while his companion is saved the knock (ko) on the
(+ tow)head by the gravitationalnecessity of holding onto his hat. For the most part,
however, figures and ornament appeared comic merely by dint of repetition and the
tendency to ornamentalise. The structuringpattern of the arabesque empties motifs
of their semantic and emotional charge103and reconfigures them as clichesin playful
exhibitions acrossand between intersecting surfaces- in this case, those of a cabinet-
like so many circumflexes on French vowels.
Taking the decoration of the cabinetas a whole, its figures and ornament can,
on the basis of the discussion so far, be said to exhibit two kinds of comic strategy.
On the one hand, the composite structure and doubled origin of the idol Ki Mao
Sao or the coquetteTao Kou results in doublethink, in an excess of meaning, an
absurd incongruity of Chinese and French signifieds: hybrid physiognomies, fete
champetre landscapes, Franco-Chinese architecture, mixed attributes. On the other,
the obsession with form and accessories, or trivialand displaced indices of identity,

102. Henri Bergson,Le rire(1899), in his Oeuvres, London

103. See E. H. Gombrich,TheSenseofOrder,
ed. A. Robinetand H. Gouthier,Paris1963, p. 405. 1979, pp. 278-81.
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 2 19

Figure19. MichelAubertafterWatteau,'LaDeesseThvo Chvudansl'isle de Hainane',1731, etchingand

engraving(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

results- in the case of the doctor, for instance- in a proliferation of cliches,or signi-
fiers stripped of seriousness and consequence by over-refinement and ubiquity.104
Thus, semantically as well as formally the arabesque conveys a distinctly uneven
texture, scissions between areas of layered density and others of worn-throughtrans-
parency. Turning again to a theatrical simile, we can note, moreover, that just as
Francois Couperin's piece La Saillieor The Joke (writtenfor the ballet of acrobatsin
Les Chinois)105 enjoins laughter by the spring between complex contrapuntal chorus

104. I am particularly indebted here to the the prologue. Couperinowned a copy of Regnard's
discussionof paradoxin J. A. Flieger, ThePurloined worksand almostcertainlyknewboth Regnardand
Punchline. Freud's Comic Theory and the Post-Modern Text, Dufresnywell (ibid., p. 23). Dufresny'sinterest in
Baltimoreand London 1991, pp. 59-63. A point China extended also to music, specificallyto song,
worth developing may be the fact that the male and in October 1713 he published in the Mercure
figuresfeaturemore often as clichesand female ones galant an essay entitled 'Enigmes chinoises ou
as double entendres. paroles de quelques chansons chinoises'. These
105. This is the conclusionof Jane Clarkin eadem were, apparently,some of the first examples of
and Derek Connon, 'The Mirror of Human Life': Chinese music brought before a French audience.
Reflections on Francois Couperin'sPieces de Clavecin, See Ysia Tchen, La Musiquechinoiseen Franceau xviiie
Huntington 2002, p. 109. The piece was published siecle,Paris 1974, pp. 10-11. Meanwhile,the Jesuit
in 1730 in the 27th order of the fourth book of father,Joseph-MarieAmiot was makingattemptsto
Francois Couperin's Pieces de clavecin;it follows introduce Couperin's music into China. See P.
another piece entitled Les Chinois,thought to have Beausant,FrancoisCouperin, Paris1980, p. 499.
been the overturefor the play,an accompanimentto
 2 2O KATIE SCOTT

and simple melodic line, and by the surprise of a B-minor key yoked to a 'lively' 2:4
romp, so in the cabinetcomedy arose not only within the orders of the figurativeand
the ornamental but also in the shift and contrast between registers.106
Such folded language contrastssharplywith the smooth surfaceof conventionally
descriptivepictorial observation,the analogue of the travelrelation, of which one of
the pairs of overdoors (Figs 12, 13) has been noted above as representative.Earlier,
I described the conjunction of these modes- the descriptive and the ornamental-
as a clash; here we might think of the ornament in the cabinetas un-working the
mimetic- the arabesque serving to throw into question the presumed economy and
sufficiency of the relation of signifier and signified, in order to suggest rather, that
mimesis in fact no more than approximateswhat it means to say.
The cabinet'smood of comic ambiguity and the techniques of condensation
and displacement alive in its decoration are, of course, those which Sigmund Freud
attributed to jokes.107AlthoughJokesand theirRelationto the Unconscious(1905) does
not conspicuously concern itself with the social dimension of laughter, precisely the
terrain of the historian, Freud's theory nevertheless hangs on an assumption, first
articulatedby Thomas Hobbes, thatjoking involves a relation- a form of communi-
cation- with others: that it is a deeply cultural affair.108Since the shared meanings
of laughter (rather than its inner motivation) are our principal concern, it is without
serious risk of anachronism that we can ask, in the light of Freud:what was the joke
of Watteau's cabinet}Was it (to use his terms) innocent, or tendentious? That is to
ask:was its aim essentiallyaesthetic, an end in itself? Or did it have a purpose: did it,
rather, satisfyby substitution an aggressiveimpulse towardsthe joke's object? Partial
answers suggest themselves in the traces of self-mockery discernable in chinoiserie;
but to understand fully what made eighteenth-century viewers smile, we must look
more closely both to the historical context which gave the joke topical value, and to
the social conventions which governed the exercise and experience of mockery at
the turn of the eighteenth century.

106. The score is marked with the instruction reproche?'On the music at the fairssee C. Barnes,
'vivement'.Clark(as in n. 105), p. 109, notes that 'The "Theatrede la foire" (Paris, 1697-1762): Its
'saillie'had manymeaningsin the early18th century Musicand Composers',PhD, Universityof Southern
including joke, jump and reproach. As a 'mot California,Los Angeles 1965, a part of which was
d'esprit' it conveyed the idea of brilliance and publishedas 'VocalMusicat "Theatresde la foire"
surprise, added to which Furetiere in his Diction- 1697-1762: Vaudeville',in Recherches sur la musique
naire(as in n. 89), vol. 111,also saysof sailliethat it viii, 1968, pp. 141-60.
frangaiseclassique,
describes a movement 'vif & subit; emportement, 107. Freud,Jokes(as in n. 5), pp. 47-131.
fougue, transport',whichcapturespreciselythejoke 108. Prior to Hobbes the Cartesianmodel of the
of this Chinese dance, one '[qui] se prend ordi- passionsframedthe discussionand understandingof
nairementen mauvaisepart'. In the CD notes that laughter:one whichfocused on identifyingan inner
accompanyClaudeRousset's1993 recordingof the wellspring of joy rather than observing its social
pieces for HarmoniaMundi,BruceGustafsonwrites function. The paradigm shift was, according to
respectivelyof Les Chinoisand La Saillie:'L'aspect Richardot,LeRire(as in n. 72), pp. 9-13, profoundly
exotique des Chinoisest rendu par la duree inegale significant and marks the later 17th century as
de sections et juxtapositions d'idees musicales belonging decisivelyto the modern. See also P.-L.
radicalementantagonistes.La toute derniere piece Assoun, 'Freudet le rire' in Freudet le rire,ed. A. W.
de Couperin est une Saillienon pas sophistiquee, Szafranand A. Nysenholc,Paris 1994. Calame (as
mais parfaitement equilibree, pleine d'allegresse in n. 68), p. 225, in his analysisof the comic in
malgre le mode mineur; le discours est simple, la Regnard, makes reference to Hobbes's definition
polyphonie, recherchee. Mais pour finir, le titre of laughter as a 'chant de triomphe' (De la nature
reste enigmatique- un saut?Un mot d'esprit?Une humaine, 1652).
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 22 1

Two securely established discursive identities were accorded to China by that

date. Firstly,she was the object of national commercial ambition- a vast emporium
of spices, drugs and luxurygoods to improve the qualityof life in France and to swell
royal coffers with revenue.109Secondly, she was a land of pagan souls whose conver-
sion was keenly desired and energetically pursued by a universal church, notably
by the Society of Jesus.110In 1685, Louis XIV had been persuaded to despatch the
so-calledJesuit mathematicians to Peking.111Less than a decade later one of their
number, Joachim Bouvet, returned to France as 'Imperial legate' (k'in-tch'ai), to
recruit further missionaries and, more importantly perhaps, to encourage the swift
expediting of a trade mission- the Jesuits firmly believing that their apostolic ends
would be substantiallyfurthered by demonstrationsof Western scientific and cultural
prowess in the tangible form of scientific instruments and luxury goods for sale.112
During his sojourn in the capital Bouvet met the wealthy industrialistJean Jourdan
de Grouce who, seduced by the reverend father's rich descriptions of the Far East,
was prompted to form a company of investors whose capital of over half a million
livresfitted out the 400-ton Amphitrite.113 She set sail from La Rochelle in 1698,
returning from Canton two years later with her first cargo of screens, chests, fans,
lacquer boxes, snuff-boxes, porcelain and silk cloth114-which are the very kinds of
merchandise listed in the d'Armenonville inventories.
If d'Armenonville was linked by taste to the burgeoning traffic in China-wares,
family connection lent a further dimension, a further complexity, to his sinophilia.
Marriageand court factionalism had him moving in the orbit of the minister Louis-
Jerome Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain, who both brokered the necessary trade
monopolies for Jourdan & Co. and invested significantlyin the firm.115Relations of

109. On trade with China see R. Picard,J. P. generally on French missions to China and their
Kerneis and Y. Bruneau, Les compagniesdesIndes:route culturalimpact see La missionfrancaisedePekinaux
deporcelaines,
Paris1966, pp. 114-32, 247-66, 288- XVIPetXVIIPsiecles(actesdu colloque de sinologie,
95; P. Haudriere,La compagniefrancaisedesIndesau CIRIC,1974), Paris1976.
XVIIIesiecle(1J19-1J95), 4 vols, Paris 1989, 1, pp. 112. Dermigny(asin n. 109), 1,p. 149.ForBouvet's
19-29, 31-36; and especiallyL. Dermigny,La Chine accountof his returnmissionto Francesee Du Halde
et VOccident: a Cantonau XVIIIe siecle(iyig-
le commerce (as in n. 111), 1,pp. 95-104.
1833), 4 vols,Paris1964, 1. 113. See Claude Mandrolle, Les premiersvoyages
110. See A. H. Rowbotham, Missionaryand Manda- francais a la Chine. La compagniede la Chine 1698-
rin: theJesuits at the Courtof China, Berkeley and Los 1J19, Paris1901, pp. xxxi-xxxvii.
Angeles 1942, pp. 37-175; and G. H. Dunne, S.J., 114. See the account given in Jacques Savarydes
Generationof Giants: the Storyof theJesuits in China in Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel du commerce,3 vols,
theLast Decadesof theMing Dynasty,London 1962 . Paris1723, 1, col. 1361. He noted thatwhile on this
111. The decision to send the French mission firstvoyagethe compagnie had been allowedto import
consisting of Joachim Bouvet,Jean de Fontaney, silk and cloth of silverand of gold to the value of
Jean-FrancoisGerbillon, Louis Le Comte, Claude 150,000 livres,thereafter the Amphitritereturned
Visdelouand GuyTachardwas apparentlytaken in (in 1703) with only 'quelqueslits brodez,des robes
the wake of Philippe Couplet'sand Shen Fuzong's de chambrepour hommes et pour femmes, & des
successfulinterviewwith LouisXIVat Versailles( 15 toilettes en petit qualite', the more lavish textiles
September1684). See J. W. Witek,S.J.,Controversial havingbeenjudged 'prejudiciableaux Manufactures
Ideasin Chinaand in Europe:a BiographyofJean-Francois de France'.
Foucquet (1665-1741) (BibliothecaInstitutiHistorici 115. For d'Armenonville 's connection with Pont-
S.I., xliii), Rome 1982, pp. 13-39 on tne prepar- chartrainsee L.-N. Tellier, Faceaux Colbert: les Le
ations for the French mission and pp. 70-72 on its Tellier,Vauban, Turgot... et Vavenementdu liberalisme,
purpose.For a contemporaryaccount of the voyage Quebec 1987, pp. 129-30 and the biographical
out, see J. B. Du Halde, Description geographique, entry pp. 715-16. For Pontchartrain
's position and
historique,chronologiquede Vempirede la Chine et de la his involvementin the Compagniede la Chine see
Tartarie 3 vols,Paris1735, 1,pp. 61-81. More
chinoise, Dermigny(as in n. 109), 1,p. 149.
 222 KATIESCOTT

blood, meanwhile, attached d'Armenonville to the Jesuit mission: a brother, the

Jesuit father Thomas-Charles,was from 1701 responsible for the Society's missions
to the Levant.116 It was to this connection that, according to the due de Saint-Simon,
d'Armenonville chiefly owed his credit with the king and at court.117At the time of
the cabinet's realisation, however, the Jesuit mission to China was in full crisis over
the so-called Rites and Terms Controversy.118 This issue saw the Jesuits pitted bitterly
against members of the mendicant orders and the secular clergy over the question
of whether the conversion of a culture entailed radical transformation- the internal
revolution demanded of the individualsoul but on a national scale- or whether, less
dramatically,indigenous terms and local customs might safely be adapted to serve
the interests of Christ.
From the time of the defining apostolate of Matteo Ricci to China at the end of
the sixteenth century, we can describeJesuit policy there as a kind of 'wooing', not
simply because wooing advances love (of God) as the motivation for mission, but
because it further acknowledges the seductive form assumed by Jesuit evangelism
in China and recognises the spirit of humility in which the beloved object (China)
was approached. The Jesuits had adapted themselves to a Chinese cultural mould,
assuming Mandarin dress and translating the Gospel and liturgy within the limits
of the Chinese language, seeking out approximations, correspondences between
Christianideas and Confucian concepts and figures of speech. Coincidentally,then,
the Jesuits, working between West and East, were testing the adequacy of arbitrary
signs at just the time when in France, painters of the arabesque were playing with
sufficiencyof naturalones.119In the engraved portraitof Jacques Le Faure published

116. Tellier (as in n. 115), pp. 129-30, 715. 117. Saint-Simon (as in n. 15), ix, pp. 17-18, cited
D'Armenonville was attached to this brother and in Tellier (as in n. 115), p. 130.
made provisions for him in his will: a rente viagere 118. The literature on this issue is enormous. David
of 400 livres 'pour l'aider a entretenir la voiture E. Mungello provides a brief and useful critical intro-
et Tequipage qui sont a son usage', and a further duction to it in 'An Introduction to the Chinese Rites
600 livres to add to the 400 which he was already Controversy', in TheChineseRitesControversy: its History
receiving in rentes'pour luy procurer le service d'un and Meaning, ed. idem, Nettetal 1994 (Monumenta
compagnon.' A.N.M.C. CXV/460, 8 November 1728. Serica Monographs, xxxiii), pp. 3-14. In addition
By a codicil dated 19 November 1728 d'Armenon- to Dunne (as in n. 110), and Rowbotham (as in n.
ville also left 2000 livres to the Jesuits in Paris, to be 110), I have found the following particularly useful:
distributed by his brother. Thomas-Charles Fleuriau's R. Etiemble, LesJesuites en Chine: la querelledes rites
concerns were with the Middle rather than the Far (1552-1JJ3), Paris 1966; D. W. Treadgold, The West
East but he was nevertheless deeply engaged with in Russia and China: Religious and Secular Thoughtin
the wider issues of mission, as is revealed by his Modern Times, 2 vols, Cambridge 1973; J. Gernet,
publications, Etat present de VArmenie,tant pour le China and the ChristianImpact: a Conflictof Cultures,
temporelque pour le spirituel (Paris 1694), Etat des transl. J. Lloyd, Cambridge 1985; G. Minamki, The
missionsde Grece(Paris 1695), Nouveaux Memoiresdes ChineseRites Controversy: from its Beginning to Modern
missionsde la CompagniedeJesus dans le Levant, 7 of 8 Times,Chicago 1985; and L. M.Jensen, Manufacturing
vols, Paris 1717-45. That Joseph-Jean-Baptiste took Confucianism:ChineseTraditionsand UniversalCivilis-
an interest in his brother's concerns is suggested by ation, Durham and London 1997, pp. 77-133-
the presence in his extensive library of copies of 119. Athanasius Kircher in La Chineillustree,transl.
Tavernier's Voyageen Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes F. S. Dalquie, Amsterdam 1670, pp. 155-60, ex-
(1676), another, unspecified, Voyageaux Indes (De plained that the Chinese forbade entry to foreigners
La Haye and Caron's?), and an Histoire de Vempire and that missionaries had had enormous difficulty in
ottomane.China features in the inventory of his library penetrating the Chinese mainland. The Chinese
rather less specifically, in a miscellany of 1o volumes judged those seeking either to visit or to stay in China
about 'la Chinne' and TAngleterre'. See A.N. 6AP by their command of Mandarin and their dress. The
IAD, 22 December 1728, fols 225-71, specifically Jesuits apparently resolved not to send missionaries
items 99, 921, 1003, 965. except those able to satisfy the Chinese on these two
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 223

Figure22.Jean-BaptisteNolin, PortraitofJacquesLe Faure,S.J.,c. 1698, engraving

( Bibliothequenationalede France,Cabinetdes artsgraphiques)
224 KATIESCOTT

by Jean-Baptiste Nolin in the late 1680s- one of a set of prints of missionaries,

mandarins and converts- we see a man visibly sunk into his Chinese context (Fig.
22). 120The movement between self and other seemingly runs in the opposite direc-
tion to that discerned in Watteau's images, where the Frenchness of some of the
figures welled up from below, trivialisingsigns of difference on the surface. Here, by
contrast, Le Faure's pose, dress and beard, his assumed identity thoroughly enclose
him, his Parisianorigin (proclaimed in the text below) buried for good, save for his
faith condensed to a fine point of distinction in the minuscule but still devastating
mysteryof the cross displayed on his breast. To Jesuits such as Le Faure, China con-
stituted a different but by no means inferior world, one they aspired to inhabit fully,
that is physically,psychologicallyand culturally,and to redeem from within.
Instinctively, we anticipate contrasting the ideologies of missionary and
merchant. Their avowedobjectiveswere officiallyopposed: the Jesuits sought to givea
final, Salvationisttouch to this most ancient of empires;Jourdan & Co. to takea hand-
some profit at her expense. That said, the cargo exported by the Amphitrite suggests
that French merchants at first anticipated a symmetryin commercial relations analo-
gous to the 'loving' dialogue that had long structured theological and philosophical
exchange. Unlike the British, by whom China was imagined as a potential mass
marketfor cheap woollens,Jourdan & Co. envisaged China as a future niche market
to be wooed into existence by the finest French wares. Specifically,Jourdan de
Grouce, also a director of the Manufacture royaledesglacesat Saint-Gobain,was looking
to find in China a new outlet for the company's mirrors.121The Far East and the
glitter of glass had become intimately associated in French minds, from the time of
the Siamese ambassadors' dazzling reception in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles
in 1686; and by a process of reading back, this French connection was projected
onto the Chinese in such a manner that a taste for mirrors, like the yearning for
Christ, was identified as latent, even prefigured in Chinese culture, only awaiting
the providential arrivalof the West to be fully realised. Metaphoricallyspeaking, the
mirror may thus serve to characterise both Jesuitical and commercial discourses on
China, in that each was premised on reflection, recognition, on patterns of sameness
in difference.

points. MelchisedechThevenotin Relationsde divers 120. On Nolin see M. Preaud et al., Dictionnaire
voyagescurieux qui n'ont pas este publies, Paris 1696, des editeursd'estampesa Paris sous Vancienregime,Paris
p. 1, opens his 'relation'as follows:'Mevoicyvestua 1987, pp. 250-51; on his 'Chinese'printsBelevitch-
la Chinoise & de la mesme facon que nos Peres Stankevitch(as in n. 77), p. 221. The portraitof Le
paroissenten public dans l'un des plus vastes& des Faurewasone of a seriessold by Nolin fromhis shop
plus mieux policez Royaumesde la terre.' To his in the rue SaintJacques,includingAdamSchall,Kan
readersdesirousof knowingthe historyof the church Xsi, Paul Siu, Loa Kiun, Confucius,XeKiam,ShenFuzong
in China he respondedby expressinginadequacies and ChinFo Cum.
born of too long and too thorough an integration 121. Accordingto Dermigny (as in n. 109), 1, p.
into anotherculture:'un eloignementsi estrange,& 150, in 1685 mirrorsand the artisansneeded to
une si longue absencede l'Europem'a fait oublierla installthem had been sent to Siam(A.N.F12/1486);
puretedu languageItalien.'On the mannerin which in 1698 or 1701 the Amphitritesimilarlytook on 'huit
the Gospelwastaughtand churchservicesconducted ouvrierspour la miroiterie'as well as the cargo of
see Louis Le Comte (as in n. 78), 11,pp. 191-266. glassitselfin orderproperlyto establishthe tastefor
Fora 20th-centuryassessmentof the policyof accom- mirrorsin Chinesehomes.
modation as it related to custom and language see
Dunne (as in n. 110), p. 28; and Treadgold(as in n.
118), p. 9.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 225

We need now to return to the question of jokes, and the kind or kinds of joke
which the cabinettold to its eighteenth-centuryadmirers.We can note without further
ado that the familiarity,freshness and vigour of the context to which the decoration
alludes must itself have afforded them a bonus pleasure, a supplement of joy in
addition to the sources of comedy inherent in chinoiserie.122 But can we go further?
Can we tease out parallels,a relation even, between the high purposes of mission and
trade and the cabinet'scomic turns? CertainlyAudran's and Watteau's programme
aimed spatiallyand visuallyto effect a conjunction, an analogous interpenetration of
East and West. China surrounded the cabinet' s amused occupants on all sides, caught
them up in an encircling narrative,diverted them from the processional course of
the enfilade,detaining them in endless play. Moreover, the pier-glassesand mirror-
faced overmantel must have functioned to project their reflected selves among the
painted China-men and -women on the walls,123so that, like so many Gullivers,they
came momentarily to inhabit an alternative, exotic world. The resulting encounter
was prompted, however,not so much by need- to establishthe compatibilitiesneces-
sary for exchange - as by desire: for incommensurability and the pleasures of the
absurd.
To follow Mihai Spariosu, incommensurability achieves conjunction without
connection;124it describes a relation of incomprehensibilityor bafflement, of entities
held together which remain nevertheless apart, different- Lilliputiansand Gullivers,
representation and reflection, fiction and reality,pagan and (in this case) Christian.
Given that incommensurate worlds are mutually unfathomable, ultimately unread-
able in each others' terms, the 'other' necessarily assumes the status of a fiction
for the self. Difference is aestheticised, becomes a matter of ontology and form: of
triangularshapes of race and custom (Fig. 11), rising profiles of superstition,dipping
lines of obeisance (Figs 4, 21), of the celestial colour blue;125theirs a slender,
floating world of slight figures, slipping between the panel and the paint, ornament
and ground, the thread of the strapworkall the thickness needed for an existence
a la chinoise.Thus, not only the techniques (condensation, displacement) but the
aesthetic effect (incommensurability)of the arabesque suggest kinship with Freud's
innocent jokes, those whose pleasure is an aim in itself. The innocent arabesque,like-
wise, has no other purpose; is apparently motiveless beyond the pleasure principle.
In 'Chao Niene' (above, Fig. 20), identities amiably cohere, the boy's androgyny
voicing the vertiginous instabilityof boundaries, the hedonistic oscillation between
self and other, here and there, via a deftly handled interplay of signs of gender.

122. Cf.Freud,Jokes(as in n. 5), pp. 171-73. 124. On incommensurabilityand the theory of

123. A scene in Les Chinoisprovides another alternativeworlds see M. I. Spariosu,TheWreathof
instancein which,again in a comic context, a room Wild Olive:Play, Liminality and the Study of Literature,
set for play, the decoration is intended as inter- Albany1997, pp. 54-71.
active. In act I, scene III, Pasquariel,seeking to 125. The blue and white exterior of the Chinese
escape the clutches of Pierrot,who has caught him Trianon de Porcelaine (1670) at Versailles had
with Marinette,hides unsuccessfullyin the frame reinforcedan alreadyhabitualidentificationof blue
of the picture over the door of the room and is with China in the late 17th century.When colour
shot out of jealousy. See Gherardi(as in n. 84), iv, was specified in relation to the Oriental porcelain
p. 166: 'Pierrotles surprendensemble, veut battre listed in the d'Armenonvilleinventoriesblue is the
Pasquariel,qui s'enfuit & se cache dans la bordure one colour mentioned (nn. 25, 27); it seems not
d'une Tableau, au dessus de la porte de la Salle. unlikelythat blue may have struckan appropriate,
Pierrotprendun pistolet& tire;Pasquarieltombe'. dominantnote in Audran'sand Watteau'scabinet.
226 KATIESCOTT

Though Freud has little more to say about the particularcharacter of innocent
quips, his general account of the psychogenesis of jokes positions them in a way
which is additionally suggestive. He outlines a four-stage development which brings
the joke into existence and leads it by steps to its full perfection.Jokes, he says,begin
in child's play, in the free and arbitraryassociation of words and thoughts; they are
transformed from senselessness to nonsense in jest; thereafter they assume their
proper status asjokes, innocent as yet of purpose but yielding pleasure in defiance
of critical reasoning; and finally, they triumph as tendentious jokes or explicitly
motivated, unreservedlytransgressivehilarity.126 Imagined as an historical genesis,127
the first stage, child's play, equates to the age of the primitive, the tendentious joke
to the modern one; whilejests and innocent jokes stand in the gap, and correspond
to the liminal phase of the post-primitive or pre-modern, the pre-colonial, to
European society in the last vestiges of its innocency. Licence for such free elab-
oration of Freud can be found in recent studies on ancien regimelaughter. Anne
Richardot,in her work on the ancienregime,has shown that the turn of the eighteenth
century constituted a particularly pivotal moment in laughter's history:128a late,
brief, full-floweringof what she calls the 'pacifist'- but we might call the innocent-
savoirrireof the aristocratichonnetehomme,which functioned avowedlyto strengthen
social bonds. She quotes, among others, Shaftesburyand his definition of raillerie,
from his essay on its usage, published in French in 1710: Vest par une douce
raillerie que nous nous polissons l'un l'autre' (a 'gentle collision by which we polish
one another');129and extrapolates two fundamental rules of honnetejoking- that it
remains within the parameters of the benevolent and that it is universallycompre-
hensible. Together these rules expressed the confidence of the court aristocracy,
and furnished the means by which it was pleasantly to reproduce itself. Innocence,
thus expanded, signifies a warmly motivated if, in the case of France and China,
uncomprehending mutuality, a non-violent, non-coercive interaction, as such, it
seemingly occurred at several different levels in the early 1700s: at the level of elite
social practice, at the level of commercial, theological and cultural discourse, and in
the realm of pure, hedonistic aesthetic pleasure.
Innocence is, of course, never absolute. There is a danger that in confusing the
perspective of the court elite with the missionaryand merchant position we become
party to the joke. Looking for difference, however, we can note that whereas for
the Jesuit missionarythe policy of accommodation was proof of the lengths to which
he would go to save a soul, of his willingness to defer the triumph of mission in
order better to be assured of ultimate victory, for the honnetehommeat La Muette,
Watteau's French figures in Chinese costume constituted by contrast a short cut, a
means to economise on the psychic expenditure needed to transporthim from West
to East, a means, that is, of immediate gratification through recognition.130It is to

126. Freud,Jokes(as in n. 5), pp. 177-79. dans les conversationsqui roulentsur Us matureslesplus
127. Gutwirth(as in n. 70), p. 77, also notes the translatedfrom the EnglishbyJustusvan
importantes,
mirroringof ontologenic and implicitlyphylogenic Effen,The Hague 1710, p. 11. The Englishtitle was
accountsin Freud'sanalysisof the comic. Essayon theFreedomof Witand Humour.
128. For what followssee Richardot(as in n. 72), 130. On the economy of pleasure in jokes see
'Rireet hospitalite';and LeRire,pp. 83-96. Freud,Jokes(as in n. 5), pp. 167-70.
129. AnthonyAshleyCooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftes-
bury, Essai sur Vusagede la railleryet de Venjouement,
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 227

the difference of the long and the short circuit and to the switches in the direction
of the current of interaction- or, to put it another way, between introjection and
projection- that we respectively owe the natural strangeness of Le Faure (Fig. 22)
and the strange familiarityof Ki Mao Sao (Fig. 4) . The distinction is not specious,
for fiction came with subtlety,veiling a difference between itself and fact, and lightly
stole awaythe blessings that accrued to the latter by virtue of the labours of faith.
Shifting attention now decisively from the irenic world conjured up by the
arabesque'sjoke-work to Watteau'svignettes and his choice of figure-types,we note
first that the scholar mandarin, the pivotal mediating figure in the fortunes of
Jesuits and merchants in the Far East, is conspicuous by his absence.131Seemingly in
absolute contradiction to European interests on the ground, the painter's Chinese
assembly stars Buddhist and Taoist monks and palace eunuchs- those notoriously
obstructiveto Western commerce and the progress of Christianity.132 It seems to me,
though I recognise that I am being more speculative here, that by comparison with
many of the chinoises,whose Frenchness has been noted, Watteau's Thau Kiene,
Eunuque du palais a la Chine' (Fig. 23) and his depiction of a Buddhist monk,
'Bonze des TartaresMongous' (Fig. 24), are embodiments of an irreducible other-
ness.133The eunuch's features are cast into perturbing obscurity by the uncompro-
mising sharpness of his hat. His body sits obdurately on terrain staked out by his
torch. Meanwhile, the curved sweep of the bonze's profile accentuates a similar,
simple-shaped solidity. The refined line of his corpulence echoes the grotesque,
spirit-defyingcorporealitydiscernable both in Western portraitsof particularbonzes
- Jean-Baptiste Nolin's Xe Kiam (Fig. 25) is a virtual caricature134-and the pagods
parodied for the popular stage. Consciouslyor otherwise, such perceptions reflected
an early-modern Christian missionary prejudice. In theological discourse of the
period, the confusion of idols and idolaters and of both with matter served to express
the seeming contradiction of Buddhist holy men whose perceived Epicureanism
appeared necessarily to stand in the way of their pastoral function. Bonzes blocked
rather than opened the way of the faithful to God.135In this respect the pose of
Watteau's bonze is more explicit than that of the eunuch, who merely stakes the
ground as if to mark a boundary:rather, he stands literallyin the way,impeding the
viewer'spath into Cathay,his lantern or staffflung across his shoulder in the manner
a guard carriesa gun.

131. One of the prints represents a 'Mandarin 133. On Jesuit understanding of Buddhism in
d'Armesdu Leaotung',seated on the groundwith a Chinain the early 18th centurysee Dunne (as in n.
daggerconspicuouslythrustinto his sash,a figureto 110), p. 27; Gernet (as in n. 118), p. 23. There was
correspondwith the 'OfficierTartare',perhaps,as by this date, apparently,no discourse presenting
both are paired with women holding parasols.See Buddhismin a positivelight.
Dacier,Vuaflartand Herold (as in n. 1), iv, nos 251, 134. In Nolin's series of Chineseportraitsthere is
254. This is a different kind of mandarin to the in fact a markedcontrastmade betweenthe refined
scholarscelebratednot only in Jesuit writingbut in representationof the Mandarinconvertssuchas Paul
the importantBeauvaistapestryseries TheStoryof the Hsu and Buddhistssuch as Xe Kiam.
Emperor of China(c. 1697-1705). See Standen (as in 135. See CharlesLe Gobien,S.J.,HistoiredeVEditde
n. 28); and Bremer-David (as in n. 28), pp. 80-97. VEmpereur de la Chineenfaveur de la religionchrestienne,
132. On the earlyuse of Buddhismby theJesuitsas avec un eclaircissementsur les honneurs que les Chinois
a bridge to Christianity,before its utter rejectionby rendenta Confuciuset aux morts,Paris 1698, preface;
them in favourof the order of mandarins,and on alsoJ. Dehergne,'Leshistoriensjesuitesdu Taoisme',
the increasinghostilitytowardsBuddhistsand Taoists in La missionfrancaise de Pekin (as in n. 111), pp.
thereafter,seeJensen (as in n. 118), pp. 42-54. 59-68.
228 KATIESCOTT

Figures23 (left), 24 (right).FrancoisBoucherafterWatteau,'ThauKiene,Eunuquedu palaisa la Chine',

and EdmeJeuratafterWatteau,'Bonzedes TartaresMongousou Mogols',1731, etchingsand engravings
(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)

According to Freudian psychoanalysis the 'tendentious joke' arises from

obstructed desire. In Freud's scenario, the interruption of 'wooing' by the arrival
of a third party results in 'smut' or the exchange of dirty talk between men about
and at the expense of a desired woman, affording them a deflected libidinal satisfac-
tion in place of the sexual act.136In Watteau's scenario of the bonze in his Chinese
landscape, the situation is somewhat different in that the desired object (the comic
victim) and the third party are conflated. That is to say that the personification of
China in the bonze extends via his dress and mienthe promise of exotic pleasure,
while his pose effects the simultaneous denial thereof. A viewer's laughter at this
can be termed a rired 'exclusion',it is in every sense contrary to the honneteand the
innocent rired 'acceuildiscussed above. Savagein its mockery, the eighteenth-century
form of the tendentious joke, soon termed persiflage,served to strengthen social
bonds, doing so not by rallying others, including its victims, but by erecting barriers
and creating outcasts, such as, in this case, oriental ones.137Examination of the
putative causes of this evolution within the historical genesis imagined earlier must
await the next game; but to anticipate a little we can surmise that such change
concurred with a metamorphosis in the elite, and was most likely connected with the
trade and taste in luxurywhose child the cabinetappears to be.

136. Freud,Jokes(as in n. 5), pp. 140-44. du persiflage libertin', XVIIPsiecle,xxxn, 2000,

137. See Richardot,Le Rire(as in n. 72), pp. 96- pp. 279-90. The term persiflagewas first coined in
126; also E. Bourguinat,'Rire et pouvoir:la lecon !734-
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 229

Nolin, 'Xe Kiam,Chefdes Bonzes',c. 1698, engraving

Figure25-Jean-Baptiste
( Bibliothequenationalede France,Cabinetdes artsgraphiques)
230 KATIESCOTT

To entertain the idea of China as comedic obstructed desire presupposes a

quarrel of incompatible worlds, in place of the ludic swerve of incommensurable
ones. Incompatible worlds may be defined as those which share a frame of reference
sufficiently to beg to differ, or to learn to hate.138In visual terms incompatibility
involvesmore that a choice of stance or posture;139it is a matter of the very language
of representation. In the overdoors that depict provincial genre scenes (Figs 12 and
13), China is projected according to the same laws of physics and rules of geometry
that govern the depiction of the 'real' world, but in such a wayas to locate it securely
at a distance. The persuasive conventions of linear perspective and illusion, which
anchor possible worlds into place, oblige the viewer to believe in China's existence;
and yet, paradoxically,against this inter-adjustableground the contrast of here and
there stands out more readily, more disturbingly. Though the figures perform
familiar rituals- the dance, the concert- there is a pervasive,unsettling wrongness
about the clothing, gestures, landscape. The women's dresses wrap instead of hang-
ing like sacks, men hide their hands in sleeves not waistcoats,the urns are top-heavy
and vegetation is contrary, flowers more prolific than leaves, trees on the scale
of plants. The demonic otherness of these details sets East and West on a collision
course- from which the anticipatedoutcome, actuallyand discursively,was no longer
accommodation but conquest.
In the second decade of the eighteenth century such expressions of hostility
towards China and the Chinese in French art and discourse were exceptionally
rare. And although Savarydes Bruslons and Montesquieu wrote memorably of the
rapacityand brigandage of Chinese merchants in the '20s and '30s, it was not until
the end of the century that a thoroughly secular, primarilymercantile, sinophobic
literature emerged to contest the sinophilic view of the earlyJesuit missionaries.140
Around 1710 the obstacle to French satisfaction was not China- in 1684 ^an Xsi
had liberalised trade with the West and in 1692 he issued an edict of Christian
toleration- but other European powers. The Amphitriteand other early merchant
ships had to compete for tradewith the superior fleets of the Dutch and the British.141
Meanwhile, in the controversy over rites and terms, the position of the mendicant
orders- who stubbornly maintained that indigenous Chinese terminology for God
and the rites to ancestors and Confucius violated Christian dogma- was gradually
gaining ground.142A protracted investigationby the Holy Office resulted in a decree
of Pope Clement XI in 1704, ruling against the use by missionaries of Chinese rites,

138. See Spariosu(as in n. 124), pp. 59-60. menager une bonne occasion; 8c tout cela sous
139. I have used the word 'posture' because, une apparence de simplicite & de bonne foy . . . '
accordingto Le Gobien (as in n. 135, preface), one Montesquieu,L'espritdes lots,vm, ch. XXI (ed. G.
of the most distinctivecharacteristicsof the bonzes True,Paris1956, p. 118), arguesthatone shouldnot
and which markedtheir differencewas the practice depend on the false reports of virtue made by
of kung fu: the practice of assuming 'certaines missionariesbut ratherask them about 'les brigan-
posturesen donnant aux pieds, au bras a la teste, dage des mandarins'.Citedin the context of a fuller
une situation bizarre...'. No such bizarrenessis to discussionof later examples in Dermigny(as in n.
be found in Watteau'sfigure but his stance, never- 109), 1,pp. 28-29.
theless,establishesotherness. 141. Dermigny,ibid.,pp. 90-200.
140. Savarydes Bruslons (as in n. 114), 1, col. 142. For the Dominicanviewsee P. Villaroel,O.P.,
1175: 'En un mot, les Chinoissont en Asie, comme 'The Chinese Rites Controversy:Dominican View-
les Juifs dans l'Europe, repandus par tout ou il y point',PhilippinianaSacra,xxvin, 1993, pp. 5-61.
a quelque chose a gagner;trompeurs,usuriers,sans 143. See Dunne (as in n. 110), pp. 282-302;
parole, pleins de souplesse & de subtilite pour Etiemble(as in n. 118), pp. 46-51.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 231

especially Confucian ones, which in turn led to his decree of 1715 (Ex ilia die) and
Benedict XIV's of 1742 (Ex quo singulari), banning Chinese rites and silencing
further discussion.143
To return to Watteau'seunuch and bonze (Figs 23, 24) in light of this discussion,
we may interpret the former's solid occupation of territory,and the latter's obstruc-
tive stance, his inhibiting gesture, as actuallyno more than postures which deflected
hostility from respected secular and sacred European authorities, attracting their
quarrels instead to themselves, that is to a blinding Chinese surface. European
wounds were thus salved;Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscansand Augustinians,Dutch,
French and British merchants, all became allies in the joke as 'China' playfully
assumed the burden of European dissent. Some viewers may have penetrated the
disguise, guessed at the antagonisms hidden in the arabesque tracery;many more
must have been seduced and amused by the cabinet'sdisjunctions, by the superficial
travesty,the comic stereotyping of Chinese identity. Thus, the cabinetat La Muette
travelled forwards- even, perhaps, unwittingly anticipating an imperialist future,
helping indeed to secure the figural idea of China as a subject nation, a land of
grotesque coolies - and simultaneously fell backwardsin an innocent display of the
absurd, an aesthetic performance of ornamental strangeness particular to the early
modern court.144Insofar as chinoiserie, as figure and ornament, successfullyenfolded
the contradictions, a power-oriented ideology was held temporarily secure in an
irenic embrace.

2.3. Roulette
It remains for us now to ask: what value was attributed to the cabinet?What social
function was performed or fulfilled by that exotic, ornamentalist ensemble?These
questions are raised under the sign 'roulette' because fortune (in more than one
sense) is implicated in the answers.
At the turn of the eighteenth century, chinoiseriewas a gamble. Watteau's and
Audran's highly original scheme was the first of its kind.145The ducal families of
Orleans, d'Antin and du Maine variously enjoyed China-cabinetsat their country
houses or in Paris;but these were created as an application of curiositeto the fabric
of the house, with panels of lacquer from oriental screens fitted into the panel-
ling on walls, rather than as invented arabesque decoration.146Moreover,as Thomas

144. For a particularlyilluminatingdiscussionof frameworksof oak panelling.Kimball(as in n. 1) , p.

'strangeness'and itsvalueat the courtof HenriII see 140, relates the drawingto a 'cabinet de la Chine
S. Mullaney,'StrangeThings, GrossTerms,Curious rouge' at the Palaisroyal,but I have been unable to
Customs:The Rehearsalof Cultures in the Late identify such a room in the Orleans inventories.
Renaissance',Representations,in, 1983, pp. 40-65. However, there were at least two Chinese cabinets
145. Historiansof chinoiserie
insiston the originality at Bagnolet:the 'cabinet de la Chine', primarilya
of the scheme;see Impey(as in n. 3), p. 8o;Jarry(as porcelain cabinet,and the 'cabinet de bois de la
inn. 3), p. 13. Chine' or lacquercabinet.It is probablyto the latter
146. Monsieur,the king'sbrother,had a lacquered that the Oppenord drawingrelates. Since there is
cabinetat Saint-Clouddescribedwithno littleaweby no trace of the room in the Regent's inventory
Martin Lister in his Journeyto Paris in the year 1698, (A.N.Xia 9162, 16 March1724) it must havebeen
2nd edn, London 1699, pp. 205-06. Much later, realised post 1724. The room, combining lacquer
Giles-MarieOppenord created a cabinetfor the and mirror-glassand articulated by pilasters, is
duchessed'Orleansat Bagnolet,a drawingfor which described in some detail in Louis d'Orleans's
in the Kunstbibliothekin Berlin shows lacquer inventory(A.N. Xia 9170, 17 February1752). The
fragmentscaptured and disciplined in rectilinear duchesse du Maine'scabinetat the hotel du Maine,
232 KATIESCOTT

Crowfirst fully recognised, the arabesque was a practicaljoke, a breaker of classical

codes and conventions.147Watteau'sand Audran's scheme likewise risked novelty in
a context where convention largely prevailed.148Its success, moreover, rested on
taste for actual Chinese things which, in turn, were themselves hazardouslysecured
by long-distance maritime trade. It was not simply by good fortune that Chinese
porcelain and lacquer, and tric-tracand card tables, cohabited in intimate, scarlet
splendour at the hotel d'Armenonville in Paris; nor indeed that d'Armenonville
and his wife invested speculatively in merchant ships.149Chinese things invoked
chance, encouraged risk- and by their playfulindeterminacyin one instance, helped
to re-arrange the consumer market as a game: in 1689 the due d'Orleans held a
sensational lottery at the PalaisRoyaland the public gambled for Chinese trinkets.150
I should like here not to argue the matter through in intricate detail but rather
to address the crossed destinies of fortune and chinoiserie in more general terms. The
closely determined, densely meshed social order of the ancienregimeensured that
those who sought a chink in its hard-ribbed grid, a back-ladder to social advance-
ment, often did so successfully only with fortune as an ally. In such games of social
credit, a Chinese cabinetmight become a trump, an ace of diamonds, a card high
enough to best the spade-full hands of those of nobler birth. Historically the four
suits represented the orders of feudal society, with diamonds standing for the
merchants;151and 'roulette' is really the fulfilment of the merchants' tale. Secured
and exploited by absolutist policy, the exotic as a significant part of the luxury
economy was an important means by which the cultural system of the court was
gradually reorganised by the forces of capitalism. However, pursuing such grand
theories in the local terms of the cabinetwill involve attending to the infinitely small,

rue de Bourbon (now rue de Lille), realisedunder l'autre a trois, prisees ensemble avec un tric-traca
the directionof Robertde CotteandArmand-Claude pied couvert de maroquin noir auquel couvercle
Mollet in the second decade of the 18th century, est un damiergarnyde ses dames et cornets' (item
consistedin narrowpanelsof lacquerexoticallyheld 161); and in her gallerywas another wooden card
into place in the panellingby frameworksof carved tablesimilarlycoveredin green cloth (item 165). In
chimerasand Chinesefigures(see F. de Catheu,'La the divisionof Jeanne Gilbert'sestate (A.N.T/720,
decorationdes hotels du Maine au faubourgSaint- 25 April 1717) it emerges that in the case of her
Germain', Bulletin de la societe de Vhistoirede Vart investmentof 1,500 livresin the Griffon,she received
francais,1945, pp. 46-100; for colourillustrationsof a return of only 975 livres, 'qui est tout ce qu'on
some of the wall panels see B. Pons, FrenchPeriod estimepouvoirrecouvrirde cette affaire.'Regarding
Rooms(1650-1800), Dijon 1995, pp. 35-37) Finally, their joint 6,000 livre investment in ships at La
in 1714 AntoineVasserealiseda Chinesecabinetfor Rochelle,a note in the marginof the inventoryreads:
the duchessed'Antinwhich also combined lacquer, 'actionssur des vaisseauxdouteux';yet despite the
carvingand mirrors;it was describedin the Mercure risks d'Armenonvillecontinued to invest in long-
de Franceas producing a seductive coupd'ceil.See distanceoverseastrade.At the time of his death his
F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the Seventeenthand investmentsincluded 'deux actionsinteresseesde la
Eighteenth Centuries,4 vols, London 1977-93, in, pp. Compagniedes Indes . . . avec leurs dividendesdes
418-19. six premiersmois de l'annee 1728 et suivant'(A.N.
147. Crow (as in n. 6), esp. 59-61. See also Scott 6AP i2,fol. 333V).
(as in n. 6), pp. 123-45. 150. An accountof the lotteryappearedin Mercure
148. See Scott (as in n. 6), pp. 109-17. galant,July 1689, pp. 178-86. See also Belevitch-
149. For the couple's investments in merchant Stankevitch(as in n. 77), p. 95.
shipping see above, n. 23. While these records do 151. The four estatesrepresentedare:the nobility
not givethe vessels'itineraries,some,verylikely,were (Spades); the clergy (Hearts); the merchants
prow-boundfor the East. At the time of Jeanne (Diamonds);the peasantry(Clubs).See C. Olmsted,
Gilbert's death in 1716, she had in her cabinet 'Analyzinga Pack of Cards',in Gambling, ed. R. D.
(A.N. 6AP 12 IAD, 3 December 1716) 'deux tables Herman,London 1967, pp. 136-47.
... couvertes de drap vert, l'une a cinq pents et
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 233

and the seemingly trivial:to the details of Watteau's sources in costume and fine
Chinese wares;and to duchesse Elizabeth-Charlotted'Orleans'squerulous complaint
that lansquenet,or games of chance, had by the 1690s all but replaced dance.152
Modern scholarship argues that the social practice which grounded the visual
conjury of China at La Muette was the fete or court masque. In contrast to the
performances of the Commedia deWarte which provided a context for seeing the joke
of the cabinet,the performance of the masque offers both model and material for
understandingits social use, its function. Notwithstandingthe economies introduced
at Versailles in the New Year of 1700, for instance, the masques in the run-up to
Lent were astonishingly exotic.153Monsieur,the prince de Bourbon-Conde (the
king's brother), and the chanceliere,Madamede Pontchartrain,organised respectively
a collationa la chinoiseat the chateau of Saint-Cloudand a fete chinoisein Paris,while
the beginning of carnivalwas celebrated by a select court at Marlywith an entertain-
ment entitled LeRoyde la Chinein which Louis played the starringrole.154For one of
these, if not for a mascaradeorganised by Monsieurle Princein his rooms at Versailles
that same January,Jean I Berain designed his 'Habit de Mandarin Chinois' (Fig.
26) which was worn by the due de Bourgogne and is believed to have served as
the source for some of Watteau'sFigureschinoises(cf. Fig. 23).155However, whereas,
in the latter, comedy arose from doubling of reference, from identities playing
through and againstone another (the French coquette arisingfrom below, as it were,
to disrupt the occidental fantasy of China), in Berain's costume design, Arlequin's
distinctive multi-chequered coat is superimposed onto the Chinese habit, so that
Arlequin and China jostle for position on the surface, drawing attention to the
pluralityand the ubiquity of performance.
What did it mean to put on Chinese costume, to become one of Watteau's
figures, so to speak? To understand court masques and their implications here it
seems important to distinguish costume and disguise. Disguise implies anonymity;
costume connotes consensus, a shared responsibilityfor appearance. Court masques
seem largely to belong to the latter. They were tightly controlled events, the themes
often assigned (by the king or one of his heirs), the participants hand-picked, and
the costumes and sets designed by the office of the Menusplaisirs,whose brief it
was to attend to the unity and coherence of the ensemble.156Even in the absence of

152. 'La danse est done hors de mode partout? in n. 77), pp. 171-72; R.-A.Weigert,JeanI Berain,
Cheznous en France,des qu'ily a une assemblee,on dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinetdu mi (1640-
ne faitquejouer au lansquenet;e'est le jeu qui est ici iyn): sa vie,safamille,sonstyle,2 vols, Paris1937, 1,
le plus en vogue; les jeunes gens ne veulent plus pp. 77-78, 91; and M.Eidelberg,'FantasticCostumes
danser.' Letter to La RaugraveLouise, from Paris and FactualPrints', On Paper,1, March-April1997,
14 May1695, in Lettres deMadame,duchesse d'Orleans, pp. 19-21.
neePrincessePalatine,ed. O. Amiel,prefaceP. Gascar, 155. On the printsee Weigert,/mnI Berain(as in n.
Paris1981, p. 118;cited by Kavanagh(as in n. 7), p. 154), 11,no. 250; for a contemporarydescriptionof
32. the costume as worn by the due de Bourgognesee
153. Saint-Simonin his Memoires (as in n. 15), vn, below, n. 160. I thank the editors for drawingmy
p. 1, recordsthat the yearbeganwith the announce- attention to a silk brocade (c. 1700 incorporating
ment of the king'srefusalto payfor alterationsand some of Berain'sdesignsfor Chinesecostumes.See
redecorationof courtiers'apartments.Within days A. Gruber,Chinoiserie: derEinflussChinasaufdieeuro-
he wasdiscussingthe magnificenceof the balls and pdischeKunst iy.-ig. Jahrhundert, exhib. cat., Bern
entertainmentswhich followed rapidly one upon 1984, pp. 38-42, ill. pp. 40-41.
anotherbetweenCandlemasand Lent. 156. For a differentreadingof masqueradesee S.
154. On these variousfetessee L'arten Franceet en Cohen, 'Masqueradeas Modein the FrenchFashion
Suede(as in n. 81), p. 262; Belevitch-Stankevitch (as Print', in TheClothesthatwe Wear:Essayson Dressing
234 KATIESCOTT

Figure26. AfterJean I. Berain,'Habitde MandarinChinois',c. 1700, etching and engraving

(Departmentof Printsand Drawings, The BritishMuseum)
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 235

a designated theme, as in the case of the prince de Bourbon-Conde's mascarade

at Versailles, a constituent order was created by the guests' coordinated dressing of
themselves and their retinues: the duchesse de Bourgogne and her ladies came
as village brides, the princesse de Conti and her entourage 'en Espagnolettes'.157
As further limits to licence, entreesor arrivalstended smoothly to follow laws of pre-
cedence.158Such carefullychoreographed flights into royallysanctioned alteritythus
seemingly left little scope for carnavalesque disorder, for rough fantasy, turbulent
ambition or acts of transgression;159 on the contrary,they provided opportunities for
the serious business of enacting, of bringing to life and light, the buried structures
of statusand clientage. Thus, insofar as Watteau'sjfrgw^s not only drew on but evoked
the world of court masques, they represented a culture which played at otherness in
order to be more essentially,more perfectly itself.
Costume, however, was not the sole experience of Versailles. At de Bourbon-
Conde's ball, guests departed only to return in disguise. It was at this point that de
Bourgogne donned his Chinese habit (Fig. 26), the beard affording him anonymity
and first acquaintance with doing without those social distinctions which before
the interval had been the abiding object of mimicry and play.160In this new arena
status was increasingly a matter of assertion, of appearance: an individual, not a
collective responsibility.For Madame de Pontchartrain'sball in 1699, the duchesse
de Bourgogne had apparentlysought a design for her costume from her father con-
fessor pere Louis Le Comte, formerly aJesuit missionaryto China, exploiting, in the
interests of eclat,her superior access to the authentic.161In disguise, authenticity,
status,was less a property of persons than of things, and operated according to slyly
different rules. Masqueradeset the scene for a game of familyfortunes and courtiers
dressed competitively to express or dissemble hautenoblesseand fealty, in high hope
of royal sanction and favour.
In the unofficial and unpredictable race for distinction, visual signs and luxury
goods assumed an increasingly significant role. Reports tell, for instance, of the
porcelain and silks used like theatrical props for the exotic divertissements organised
by courtiers;162I have found no visual records, but the capacity of porcelain vases
temporarily to circumscribe an isle of delight is attested in an illustration of a fete
at Versailles in 1678 (Fig. 27)163- even if, at this earlier date, the theme is classical

and Transgressingin Eighteenth-Century

Culture,ed. J. couleurs en losange, commeun habit de harlequin,
Munnsand P. Richards,Newarkand London 1999, lequel couvroit une bosse artificielle. Sa coeffure
pp. 174-207. estoit un parasolltenant a sa teste duquel s'ostoit
157. See L'art en Franceet en Suede (as in n. 81), p. une aigrette de 2 pieds de haut; son masqueestoit
260. un vieillarda barbe grise' [my emphasis]. L'arten
158. Ibid. FranceetenSuede(as in n. 8 1) , p. 260.
159. The French court masques were thus in 161. '"Le confesseur, continue Mme Dunoyer
importantrespects quite different from the urban [Anne-MargueritePetit du Noyer], avoua ingen-
masqueradesof 18th-centuryEngland, analysedby nieusement qu'il avait plus de commerce avec
T. Castle in Masqueradeand Civilization:the Carnival- les Chinois qu'avec les Chinoises. ...' An amusing
esquein Eighteenth-Century
English Cultureand Fiction, account of this unorthodoxwayof treatinga father
London 1986, esp. pp. 52-109. confessoras a fashionguruappearsin a letterquoted
160. The eventwasdescribedby DanielCronstrom in Belevitch-Stankevitch (as in n. 77), p. 171. For Le
in January1700 as follows:'Le Due de Bourgogne Comte's Nouveauxmemoires see above,n. 78.
estoit en Druide chinois. II avoitune jaquette grise, 162. See ibid., 162-70.
qui luy venoit a my-jambe;par dessus cela un petit 163. See Andre Felibien, Relationde la feste de
manteauvenanta la Cinture,bigarreede differentes Versaillesdu 18 juillet mil six cens soixante-huit,Paris
236 KATIESCOTT

Figure27.Jean Lepautre,'Illuminationsdu Palaiset desJardinsde Versailles',fromAndreFelibien,Relation

du 18juillet1668, Paris1679, engraving(Bypermissionof The BritishLibrary)
delafestedeVersailles

rather than Chinese. Twenty years later, in a fictional/^ related by Madeleine de

Scudery in her Conversations nouvelles,beautiful and rare merchandise constituted
the very focal point, the distinguishing object, of the occasion. At a salon at Marly
guests discovered for their amusement four magnificent shops complete with shop-
keepers, counters, dice and dice-cups and a prodigious diversity of 'marchandises
galantes'from the Eastand Europe, including Chinese coffers, tables, large and small
cabinets,boxes and fans.164The company was urged to gamble freely, extravagantly
for what it wanted, the exotic wares thus seeming to function as strange attractors,
instituting about themselves potentially turbulent fields of players competing for
chance possession.
The conjunction of imported luxuries and gambling is suggestive in a number
of ways.With respect to the objects themselves, gambling as a means of acquisition
reinforces the idea that such goods fall outside routine circuits of production and
exchange; it implies that they were neither laboured over nor laboured for. Rather

1679. I am gratefulto Juliet Careyfor drawingmy withan elaboratecornicealongwhichwerearranged,

attentionto this text. The occasion illustratedhere, backlit,64 'vasesde porcelain',while outside,Gissey
an illuminationdevisedby Gissey,took place at one stationed200 similarvases,'de quatrepieds de haut
of the '1001'fetescelebratingthe declarationof peace de plusieursfacons,et ornezde differentesmanieres',
in Europe after the end of the Dutch Warin 1678. presided over by statues of the Four Parts of the
Accordingto Felibien's account, the interiorof the World.
temporarystructurewhich housed the feast given in 164. Madeleinede Scudery,Conversations nouvelles
the petitParebeforethe fireworkdisplaywascrowned surdiverssujets,2 vols,Paris1698, 11,pp. 489-91.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 237

they were discovered, became objects of speculation and of accumulation without

prior possession. With regard to the players, gambling confirms that we are among
gens de qualite:risk affords opportunities for quality to show itself by its honnete
insouciance.165Gambling functioned, according to Thomas Kavanagh,as the defin-
ing quality of nobility, affirming its legal, moral and spiritual superioritythrough its
equanimity to swings in fortune which concerned no more that the in- and out-rush
of louts to and from its purses.166However, in Mile de Scudery's tale the king and
host finally spoils honour's splendid resistance to the incursions of the money
because, unbeknownst to the players,he has guaranteed all losses in advance and in
making everyone a winner has thereby deprived them of the clearest victory of all,
the victory in defeat. In this circumstance, where Louis XIV explicitly assumes the
role of Destiny, the scene changes focus; exotic goods come to signify the drawing
force of Bourbon monarchy, its power to dazzle and infantilise. Playerswere brought
to exchange their noble autonomy for the mere role of high-placed and dependant
subject caught in struggles with an absolute ruler upon whose capricious favour all
seemingly rely for their prosperity.167Goods, gamblers and government are related
in Mile de Scudery'stale and in the society it portraysnot accidentallybut meaning-
fully.
Applying the insights prompted by this 'conversation' to d'Armenonville and
his cabinetat La Muette suggests that nobles manipulated luxuries, curiosities,exotica
of all kinds (even if on a lesser scale than in the story) to attract their own measure
of approbation and to better the displaysof others. To live nobly was to exhibit taste
on a potentially ruinous scale and to avow an indifference to constraints of cost

165. In Madeleinede Scudery'sstory,the character 167. That is, the scenario can be related to the
Cloreliserecommendsin additionto reading,needle- classicOedipal one. For psychoanalyticreadingsof
work, painting, music and walking, 'le jeu sans gambling see The Psychology of Gambling, ed. J.
passion, & pour peu de temps' for women of the Hallidayand P. Fuller,London 1974, in which are
court (ibid.,p. 471). The (real) chevalierMere,who reprinted,among others, SigmundFreud, 'Dostoy-
eschewed the strange behaviour and odd super- evsky and Parricide' (pp. 157-74) anc*Edmund
stitionsof some gamblers,insistedthat 'IIfautjouer Bergler, 'The Psychologyof Gambling' (pp. 175-
le plus qu'on peut en honnete homme, et se rendre 201). Freud'sdiscussionof the bisexualcomponent
a perdre comme a gagner, sans que l'un ni l'autre which drove Dostoyevsky'sOedipal fantasies and
se connoisse au visage ni a la facon de proceder.' gamblingspreessuggeststhat the courtier'srelation-
(AntoineGombaud,chevalierde Mere, Oeuvres com- ship with his absolutemonarchmay be understood
pletesdu chevalierMere,ed. C. H. Boudhors, 3 vols, psychoanalyticallyas similarlycharacterisedby a dual
Paris1930, in, p. 165). And as relatedby Ortiguede impulse:to want to be in the father'splace and to
Vaumoriere, Uart de plaire dans la conversation,Paris want to be a woman for the father. It was into the
1711, p. 429, in a dialogue between Eraste and latterpositionthatthe courtiersat Marlywereforced
Dorante it is readilyacknowledgedthat an honnete (by royalwill as well as by fantasy). EdmundBergler
homme may gamble 'quand on joue plutot par developedout of Freudthe theme of 'psychicmaso-
amusement,que par interest.'For historians'views chism', according to which the gambler searches
of aristocraticgamblingseej. Dunkley,'Gambling: for unjusttreatmentand desiresto lose, in order to
a Social and MoralProblemin France 1685-1792', vindicate his belief that his father despises him.
Studieson Voltaireand theEighteenthCentury,ccxxxv, Consideredat the level of social rather than indi-
1985, passim (but for a succinct statementp. 17); vidual practice, Bergler's theory raises the possi-
and Kavanagh(as in n. 7), pp. 29-66. bilityof understandingcourt gamblingas behaviour
166. Kavanagh(as in n. 7), pp. 38-44. D. M. prompted by the nobility'ssense of itself as out of
Downes, Gambling, Workand Leisure:A Story across favour,as unjustlydiminishedand overlooked.It is
ThreeAreas,London 1976, p. 16, makes the more beyond the scope of this studyto develop either of
essentialistargument that 'Those whose status is these threadshere. They are mentioned in order to
based on the aleatory principle of heredity will laystresson the pain as well as the pleasureinherent
cultivateit at play'. in 18th-centuryplay.
238 KATIESCOTT

Figures28 (left), 29 (right).Chineseporcelain:KanXsi vases,1662-1722; Aritavase, 1700-22

( The Boardof Trustessof the Victoriaand AlbertMuseum)

analogous to the gambler's masochistic disregard for reality and the certainty of
eventual loss at the tables.168However, for members of the new financial and office-
holding elites, like d'Armenonville, it further required throwing aside the prudent
management of wealth by which fortunes sufficient to the purchase of office had
been carefully accumulated in order to risk, via conspicuous display, accession to
a higher legitimacy.169According to President Henault, d'Armenonville embodied
precisely this contradiction: inwardlycalculating in his talent for finance, outwardly
liberal in his style of life, he ultimately owed the grudging consideration of the court
to the convincing performance of his three graceful houses, Rambouillet, La Muette
and Madrid.170 We might say that, in playing to win, the members of this new elite
accelerated the process of reification already at work at the fetes,by which nobility
was implicitly transposed from persons and behaviours onto things.
The eighteenth-century word cabinetsimultaneously denotes a physical space,
the social practices accomplished therein and a piece of furniture.171We might,
then, conceive that in the game 'Distinction' Watteau'scabinetwas turned inside-out:
inverted from a void, a space offetesand charade (accomplished within and upon the
walls) into a material object, a generically exotic counter.172Observing the cabinetin
this second manifestation is no longer to see in Watteau'sand Audran's designs the

168. See Elias (as in n. 8), pp. 37-38, 53; Scott (as 171. See Antoine Furetiere,Dictionnaireuniversel,
3
in n. 6), pp. 81-97. vols, The Hague 1690, 1, 'cabinet';Pierre Richelet,
169. Kavanagh(as in n. 7), pp. 50-51. Dictionnairefrangais, Geneva 1693, p. 170.
170. Henaultis cited by Franqueville(as in n. 13), 172. Or, to put it differentlyagain, we compare
pp. 49-50. its metaphoricalpassageto thatfrom the ludic space
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 239

Figure30. Lacquercabinet,Japanese(Kyoto?)and French(Paris),c. 1680, hiba-woodlacqueredin black

and gold ( Bykind permissionof the Trusteesof the WallaceCollection)

simulacraof chinoiseriebut to recognise instead their likeness to actual Chinese things.

It is mentally to match the scheme of elaborately framed, isolated 'chinois' (Fig. 2)
to, for example, scenes in blue and white on transitionaland Kan Xsi porcelain (Fig.
28); to trace across female beauties, parasoled or with fans full spread (Figs 4, 7, 8)
to Kakiemon and Imariwares (Fig. 29); to travel the floating world of the arabesque
(Figs 4, 11, 16, 18) according to that marellerhythm perfected to navigate the archi-
173
pelagos of golden islands unfolding across black, lacquered space (Fig. 30). The
materialism of the taste for the exotic was, as we have seen, a comic sub-theme in
both Regnard's and Dufresny'splays and Watteau and Audran's cabinet.114 However,

of the studio on the ground floor of the Palaisdu to the consumer,ratherthan the workingmethods
Luxembourgto the casino in the basement where of the painter.On the tradein orientalceramicsin
up to 400 playersnightly placed their bets at the the late 17th and 18th centuries see J. Ayers, O.
invitationof the duke of Modena.For the lattersee Impeyandj. Mallet,Porcelain forPalaces:TheFashion
Kavanagh(as in n. 7), p. 255 n. 1. for Japan in Europe1650-1750, London 1990; T.
173. Belevitch-Stankevitch (as in n. 77), p. 250, Wolvesperges,'Lesvicissitudesdu marchedes lacques
also proposed that Watteauwas drawingon actual a Paris au XVIIIesiecle', Histoirede VArt,xl/xli,
Chinesethings.Eidelbergand Gopin (as in n. 3), pp. 1998, pp. 59-73; and esp. C. Sargentson,Merchants
36-40 and n. 51, have argued,on the contrary,that and LuxuryMarkets:theMarchands-merciers
ofEighteenth-
the range of specific motifs makes travelliterature CenturyParis,London 1996, pp. 62-96.
a more likely source. My point is rather different, 174. Additionallywe can note that when, in Le
insofaras it concerns the addressto the viewer,or Sage's Arlequininvisible(1713), Arlequin greedily
 240 KATIESCOTT

the lightness and comic wit expressed at La Muette was soon undone by the weight
of that which it sought subtly to mock: for within twenty-odd years, competition
for status and favour forced the scheme to make way for newer, presumably more
winsome, decoration.175
The conflict of meanings in the word cabinetadditionally raises long-standing
questions about the nature of the relationship between courtly culture and capitalist
enterprise and, by extension, about the role of the early modern state in promoting
both the substance and semblance of exchange between them.176According to
Werner Sombart the relationship was intimate, causal. In Luxus und Kapitalismus
(1913) he argued that capitalistforms of trade and manufacture germinated in the
ambitious consumer patterns of the court; and that the nobility, old and new, had,
for the traditional reasons of status, readily entered the new world of capitalism by
the mid-seventeenth century.177Mile de Scudery's 'conversation' supports this view.
Court and market are synchronised such that the interests of the merchants appear
to fold snugly and continuously into the boundless desires of the court, her char-
acterisation of traders and nobles serving additionally to disavow all that actually
separated ease and privilege from the sweat and aggression of trade. The court
merchant or 'oiselier', we are told, owed his name to his likeness to birds;178 his trade
might be likened to an of
arabesque flight acquisitivediscovery. The fleet effortless-
ness of the oiselierstands in contrast to the deathly ennui of the court (personified by
Aminte, or elite, aristocraticwoman), the dissipation of which is the effortful theme
and enterprise of Mile de Scudery'stale. The capacityof each to reflect the denning
characteristicsof the other in close patterns of ease and effort imposes a smooth,
mirror-mouldof aesthetic order on the disruptive,turbulent forces at play;it creates
a dialogue unknown to the participants. Furthermore, inasmuch as Louis XIV
functions in the tale as the deusex machina,as the one who sets desires and ambitions
in motion, the mercantile policies of the earlymodern state appear doubly occluded:
first by the aestheticisation of commerce just noted; and secondly by court appetite,
the satisfactionof which in the interest of peace and prosperitybecomes the alibi for
the mercantilist project. Aminte (and not her bourgeois sister) is thus advanced as
the principal desiring subject, the inspiration for the trafficin commodities.179
Though in Mile de Scudery's story a generic exoticism, indiscriminately com-
bining Near and Far Eastern goods, is secured to meet courtly demand, chinoiserie

stuffshis pocketswithjewels and trinketsfrom the place: Nobles and Moneyin EarlyModernFrance',
king of China's cabinet,the joke encompassednot in The Cultureof the Market:HistoricalEssays,ed. T. L.
only the things taken but also the illegitimate Haskelland R. F. TeichgraeberIII,Cambridge1993,
satisfactionof appetite. See Le Sage and d'Orneval PP-43~65-
(as in n. 94), 1, p. 69. Such comedysurelyinvolved 177. W. Sombart,Luxuryand Capitalism, transl.W.
the insight that the exotic was in complex ways R. Dittmar,introd. P. Siegelman,Ann Arbor 1967,
related to the social change effected by commerce, pp. 58-112. For an analysisof Sombart's position
acknowledgingthe ill-gottennatureof the acquisition in relation to Fernand Braudel's dismissalof his
of the 'other'. arguments see C. Mukerji,'Reading and Writing
175. Rarely,such rooms survivedby inheritance. with Nature:Social Claimsand the French Formal
See e.g. M.Jallut, 'MarieLeczinskaet la peinture', Garden',Theory andSociety,xix, 1990, pp. 651-58.
GazettedesBeaux-Arts, lxxiii, 1969, pp. 309-11, on 178. Scudery,Conversations(as in n. 164), p. 488.
Leczinska'sChinesecabinet(1761) which wasleft to 179. Here I am respondingto the argumentsput
the duchessede Noaillesin the queen'swill. forward by L. Brown in Ends of Empire:Womenand
176. For a stimulatingdiscussionof some of these Ideologyin Early Eighteenth-Century
Literature,Ithaca
issuesseeJ. Dewald,'The RulingClassin the Market- i993,esp.pp. 103-34.
 PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHERNESS 241

seems in fact to have enjoyed a privileged role in promoting the elision of consump-
tion and aristocraticfemininity. Missionarieslike Le Comte spoke eloquently of the
beauty of Chinese women and praised the refined elaboration of their dress, while
at the same time admitting a deficiency of direct evidence since these women lived
out a cloistered and thus suitably modest existence, tucked away in the deepest
interiors of their houses.180In so far as chinoiserie
invoked these informed prejudices
about China it appeared able to reconcile the irreconcilable: luxury and feminine
virtue.181That many of the chinoiserie cabinetsin Paris182
and the ile de France, includ-
ing d'Armenonville's at La Muette, were apparently realised for women suggests a
mapping of fantasies about the first onto the second, playing out the possibility of
a cloistered, chaste but luxurious femininity. D'Armenonville,indeed, seems to have
associated his wife with Cathay, as is suggested by the removal after her death of a
gold-footed Chinese chest from her chambreto his, presumablyas a mementomori183
To summarise: the East was initially performed as a spectacle by court society.
Gradually this fictive play, facilitated by both the arabesque's and the masque's
hospitality to otherness, was destabilised by the introduction of imported goods.
Intended to support and extend performance, they became (with the state's con-
nivance) the very object of play; something ultimately to hold against privilege. In
one last move, I want to consider the implications of the transition from play to
game, or from an order of mimicry to an order of competition and chance- the
triumph of lansquenetover dance.184One of the authors of Les Chinois,Charles
Dufresny, observed that at lansquenet'the last among men, with money in his hands,
takes whatever rank his card gives him, and finds himself above a due et pair.'185

180. On Chinesedisplay,includingsartorialdisplay, Histoire d'une Dame chretiennede la Chine (Madame

see Le Comte (as in n. 78), 1, pp. 311-66 and n, CandideHiu petittefilledu GrandChancellierde la Chine),
pp. 282-83, in connectionwith the consequentdiffi- Paris1688.
cultyof givingwomen religiousinstruction.Bouvet, 181. In this chinoiseriewas notably different to
in L'estatpresent de la Chine (as in n. 78), used the turqueriewhere the dominant idea of the harem
abstractnouns 'commodite','modestie','agrement' workedto sexualisethe representationof women.See
and 'gravite'to characterisethe dress of Chinese P. Stein, 'Madamede Pompadourand the Harem
women;and hoped that the French 'ne seroit peut- Imageryat Bellevue', GazettedesBeaux-Arts, cxxiii,
etre pas fachee de prendre quelque chose des 1994, pp. 29-44, on turquerie
in the 18th century.
Chinois dans la forme de ses habits: et apres en 182. For the cabinetsat the hotels du Maine and
quelquemaniereuse toutesles modes,qu'un caprice d'Antinsee above,n. 146;for the cabinetat the hotel
bizarre a pu inventer, peut-estre a leur example, Dodun see B. Pons, WaddesdonManor,Architecture
and
pensera-t-elle[la Nation] a se fixera quelqu'une,au Panelling,London 1996, pp. 557-93, esp. 563-71;
choix de laquellela raisonseule aurapart.'As a final and for the cabinetby LouisHerpin andJean-Martin
and ratherextreme example see E. M. De La Barbi- Pelletier at the hotel de La Vrilliere see La rue
nais Le Gentil, Nouveauvoyageautourdu monde,3 vols, Saint-Dominique:hotelset amateurs,exhib. cat. (Musee
Paris 1728, 11,pp. 156, 158. In this account of his Rodin), Paris1984, p. 191.
circumnavigationof 1716, dedicated to the comte 183. A.N.6AP12 IAD,3 December1716, item 137,
de Morville,he announced that 'Lajalousie est le 'un coffre de la Chine avec son pied de bois dore',
premierArchitectedes Chinois.II me semble qu'ils 'dans la chambre de Jeanne Gilbert',would seem
ne batissentque pour deroberleursfemmesa la vue very likely to be item 400 in d'Armenonville's
du Public' He went on to specify:'L'appartement inventory(A.N. 6AP 12 IAD, 22 December 1728),
des femmesest dansl'endroitle plus recule.C'estun 'un coffre de la Chine d'environtroispieds et demi
prisondesagreableet obscureque l'habitude,l'idee de long sur son pied de bois dore', notwithstanding
d'un honneur chimerique, et la triste necessite a the depreciationin valuefrom 150 to 30 livres.
obeir a leurs marisleur fait trouversuportable.'On 184. See above,n. 152.
the groundsof their modesty,Chinesewomen who 185. 'le dernier de tous les homes, l'argent a la
had converted to Christianitywere held up as main, vient prendre audessusd'un due et pair, le
examplesworthyof emulation;see P. Couplet, S.J., rangque sa cartelui donne'. C. Dufresny,Amusements
242 KATIESCOTT

Chance equalised; it enabled outsiders to break down traditional barriers of social

distinction and allowed, more generally, the odds, hunches and markets played by
merchantsto appear alongside the parts,hands and dice played at court.186The same
forces appear to have shaped, for example, the rise and fall of Fleuriau d'Armenon-
ville's credit at court; and the fluctuating returns on the cargoes of the Amphitrite.181
In the second edition of his Essayd 'analysesurlesjeuxdehasard(1713), Pierre Remond
de Montmortpromoted the idea that aleatoryarithmetic- Blaise Pascal's'Geometrie
du Hasard'- could become part of a general 'art of conjecturing', or probability
theory, which might help resolve moral, social and political decisions made under
analogous conditions of uncertainty.188Abstract patterns of numbers, the delicate
filigree of the arithmetical triangle, appeared to hold the key to destiny;in games of
all kinds courtiers and merchants, women and men, seemingly relinquished their
conditioned selves to be moulded into shapes determined by principles of probability
alone. Thus while these games of fortune and trade could be played to reinforce the
statusquo, they also afforded opportunities to pull back from the oppressiverigidities
of the society of orders and experience the heady novelty of anonymity and rivalry
in social relations.189In an argument which shadows Freud's account of the psycho-
genesis of jokes, Roger Caillois contended that 'modern' individualising games
of chance replaced the 'archaic', collective play of court entertainments once the
universe was apprehended as rationallyordered and quantifiable.190It is one of the
arguments of the present essay that, paradoxically, Watteau's fantastic and comic
cabinetparticipated in this process of rationalisation. Thus, we find at the level of
social practice, in the strategic function of the cabinet,a co-existence of ancient and
modern structures,those of feudal estate and those of modern subjectivity,analogous
to the bifurcated meanings, the innocence and tendentiousness, identified in its
imagery. The risk taken by d'Armenonville in his patronage of a novel decorative
genre, executed by an elite workshop- an embellishment of his property which
made it more desirable, thus prompting, most likely, its compulsory purchase soon
afterwards191 - in the long run returned unanticipated dividends to those of his rising

serieuxet comiques,ed. J. Dunckley, Exeter 1976, p. 31, Fleury's administration and coincidentally another
cited in Dewald (as in n. 176), p. 60. patron of Watteau. Amphitrite's first voyage was highly
186. For discussion of the theory and practice of successful andjourdan et Cie paid dividends of 50%
risk see L. Daston, ClassicalProbabilityin theEnlighten- to investors, but the second voyage, of 1701-03,
ment,Princeton 1988, pp. 1 12-87. brought in a loss of 100,000 ecus. See Dermigny (as
187. According to Franqueville (as in n. 13), pp. in n. 109), 1, pp. 150-51; also above, n. 114.
47-48, Fleuriau d'Armenonville was disgraced 188. Pierre Remond de Montmort, Essay d 'analyse
towards the end of Louis XIV's reign. See also Saint- sur les jeux de hasard (1708), 2nd edn, Paris 1713,
Simon (as in n. 15), xv, pp. 382-85 on d'Armenon- commenting on Jacob Bernouilli's Ars conjectandi,the
ville's loss to Nicolas Desmarets in 1708 of the post fourth part of which was to have extended probability
of intendant desfinances, for which the capitainerieof theory into the realm of politics and ethics. See also
the Bois de Boulogne was seemingly a form of com- B. Le Bovier de Fontenelle, Histoiredu renouvellement
pensation. In 1716 d'Armenonville was appointed de VAcademie royaledessciencesen 1699, Paris 1708, pp.
secretaired'etatbut objections were raised to his hold- 174-75; I- Hacking, TheEmergence a Philo-
ofProbability:
ing this office and that of conseillerd'etat (see BnF sophicalStudy of EarlyIdeas aboutProbability,Induction
MS fonds francais 16219; n.a.f. 9735). Though the and StatisticalInference,Cambridge 1975, esp. 63-153.
affair was ultimately resolved in his favour and 189. See for an expression of similar views Dewald
heralded his promotion in 1722 to garde des sceaux, (as in n. 176), p. 62.
both d'Armenonville and his son, de Morville, were 190. R. Caillois, Les jeux et les hommes,Paris 1967,
finally dismissed from office in 1727 to make way for pp. 161-94.
Germain-Louis Chauvelin, the rising star in Cardinal 191. See above, n. 15.
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 243

Figure31. Secretary,Italian(Venice)c. 1730-35, carved,paintedand varnishedlinden-wood,decoratedwith

decoupageprints (The MetropolitanMuseumof Art,FletcherFund, 1925-/25. 134.lab)
244 KATIESCOTT

social class:it helped demystifyprivilege, reducing it to no more that the possession

of surplus (exotic) things.

3. Conclusion/Postscript: Decoupage
A return to the beginning, to the Figureschinoisespublished in 1731, the printed
after-life of the cabinet,affords at one level the prospect of drawing together the
various 'games' and of seeing, perhaps more clearly via the exaggerated effects of
reproduction, the significance of the original. Decoupagerefers, however, not just to
the survivalof the designs as prints but also to a potential use of them; to the way
in which they too were open to play. In concluding with prints, I will therefore,
necessarilybe making a brief beginning- a postscript- of the end.
Decoupagefollows in many ways compulsively in the wake of 'roulette', because
in breaking up the space of the cabinetand reproducing in flattened, edited form
only the tangible, figural elements of the scheme, the prints accomplished the
process of commodification merely latent in the original. Aiming, most probably,to
project the scheme into a wider, middle-marketof urban, 'populuxe' consumers,192
the print-sellers Chereau and Surugue omitted the arabesques- and the sphere of
playful,aristocraticsociabilitythey evoked- and substitutedsimple, rectilinearframes
and ostensibly informative captions ('Habillements des habitants ...', 'Idole de la
Deesse ...'), thereby deflecting the Figuresinto a broader culture of travel and
curiosite.By stripping chinoiserie of ornament, the prints stripped it too of its innocent,
comic effects: the puns, double entendres and cliches. China, an incommensurate
world of mirrored refinement and luxury,personified by fantasticidols or goddesses,
was traded for incompatibility, for a secular, low world of eunuchs, bonzes and
servants:for mere difference. Charades, one could say, decisively made way for the
conquests of 'Go'.
If the livret format and informative legends officially addressed the Figures
to curieux,2llook at the advertisements in the Mercurede Francereveals that exotic
prints, often sold for fabrication into fans, were in the 1730s more usually directed
at fashionable, elite or would-be elite, women.193The proliferation of such printed
chinoiserie testifies further to the commercial success of appealing to women as desir-
ing subjects, as the desiring Destiny towardswhich trade in exotic goods naturally
tended. Though gender has not figured conspicuously as an issue in this essay, the
figure of woman is a recurring motif:Jeanne Gilbert, the probable recipient of the
cabinet;her sex as ostensible inspiration to trade;and La Chinerepresented in all her
exotic allure by a retinue of witty coquettes and goddesses. In all these instances
femininity served the interests of change- and of capital, not land. That service was
not, however, alwayspassivelygiven.
Decoupagewas the rage in the 1720s and '30s, and in 1727 Gersaint advertised
prints after Watteau for the purpose.194Though of Venetian origin and somewhat

192. For the term 'populuxe' and an analysisof 193. See, for example,those advertisedby Thomas
consumerismin the 18th centurysee C. Fairchilds, Mondon in the Mercure deFrancein 1736 and those
'The Productionand Marketingof PopuluxeGoods advertisedby Huquierin 1737.
in Eighteenth-Century Paris',in Consumption
and the 194. Mercurede France,November 1727, p. 2492.
Worldof Goods,ed. J. Brewerand R. Porter,London For this and other examplesof decoupage advertised
!993- in the Mercurede France,including those intended
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 245

Detailof Figure31. (The MetropolitanMuseumof Art,FletcherFund, 1925-/25. 134. lab)

 246 KATIESCOTT

later in date than Watteau's cabinet,a secretairein the Metropolitan Museum of Art
reveals the ambitious ends to which the art could put; and exhibits in its interior
a miscellany of complexly-patterned arabesques- of a kind to compare with the
interior at La Muette- cut-out from prints and varnished into place (Fig. 3 1) .195The
novelty value of the figures and the silhouette-like manner in which many of them
detach themselves from their backgroundsmakes it likely that on occasion these too
prompted something beyond complacent reception. Decoupageinvolved women in
reproducing the creative act that had brought the original into being: their cutting,
sorting and arranging analogous to Audran's and Watteau's folding, inventing and
composing. It was classed as an amusement or pastime, a kind of parlour game, not
for its lack of art but because worked by amateurs.However, if we take this classifi-
cation as game literallyfor a moment, it opens the way to a fuller understanding of
the particularpleasure afforded by decoupage: in creating from originals, it discovers
the beginning in the end.
The pleasure we take in games derives from their action as both rule-binding
and liberating;they free us from our 'normal' selves, our usual lives, but within speci-
fically determined, consciously contrived parameters.The pleasure of this legaliberte,
as Colas Duflo terms it, arises on the one hand from a willing submission to law,
however arbitraryor absurd,joined on the other hand to a powerful sense of self-
determination, of being the cause of destiny.196To put it succinctly, we might say
that ludic pleasure consists in an experience of equivocation, of enslavement and
masteryin equal measures. The social rules of decoupagefirst limited play to women,
subjecting them to their own company; that is, setting them aside not only in but by
the game.197The conventions of the genre restricted creativityto bricolage-atype of
play using borrowed signs and assigned identities. Within these limits, however,
decoupage armed its devotees with scissors,invited a playfulsabotage, a bladed decom-
missioning of exotic commodities (or rather representations thereof) by those they
purported to define. Watteau's cabinetin the hands of women, cut-up, rearranged,
in-mixed with other designs and patterns, was, I suggest, freed of some of its old,
patriarchalpower to enthral, amuse, and define; freed, potentially at least, to instate
a new disorder of feminine design.

The CourtauldInstituteof Art

for making'Chinese'fans, see Scott (as in n. 6), pp. e.g. Bruno Pons's fascinatingreconstructionof the
249-50. duchesse de Bourbon'scabinetinterieurwhich con-
195. On this secretaire
see the magnificentarticle tained,at her death,portfolios'remplisde differentes
by D. O. Kisluk-Grosheide, '"CuttingUp Berchems, decoupures', a pastime of which she was notably
Watteaus,and Audrans":A LaccapoveraSecretaryat fond, and wasdecoratedwith panellinga la capucine
The MetropolitanMuseumof Art', TheMetropolitan by FrancoisRoumier, inset with fancy portraitsof
Museum Journal,xxxi, 1996, pp. 81-97. membersof her familyin the guiseof saintsand nuns
196. C. T>ui\o,Joueretphilosopher,Paris 1997, passim. -persons in retreat from the world. The location
197. For an addressabout decoupage made specifi- and decorationof the roomreinforcedits privacyand
callyto womensee 'LettreecriteparM. Constantina its function as a space for decoupage.
Pons (as in n.
la marquisede ***surla nouvellemode des meubles 182), pp. 497-521. Fora discussionof secluded-ness
en decoupure',Mercurede France,December 1727, as one of the defining characteristicsof play see
quotedin full in Kisluk-Grosheide(as in n. 195), pp. Huizinga(as in n. 42), pp. 28-29.
94-95. For actual spaces filled using decoupage see
 PLAYINGGAMESWITH OTHERNESS 247

Detailof Figure31. (The MetropolitanMuseumof Art,FletcherFund, 1925-/25. 134. lab)

248 JOURNAL OF THE WARBURGAND COURTAULD INSTITUTES