Prints: from the Chinese context to Parisian collections

As part of the focus exhibition "The language of walls. Estampages de la Chine à Notre-Dame" (March 18 - June 28, 2026), this half-day study session proposes to consider (examine/look into) the Chinese print collection of the Musée des Arts décoratifs. These presentations will take a fresh look at the prints presented in 1912 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs during the exhibition "Estampages de sculptures chinoises".

The aim is to reflect on the choices made by scholars, collectors or sinologists, who accorded different cultural and aesthetic values to stamped inscriptions, funerary or votive images, ornaments and portraits. This highlights the transmission of knowledge and know-how between China and Europe.

This half-day seminar presents the results of a partnership with the Musée des arts décoratifs and Madame Lia WEI, Senior Lecturer, in charge of the Mission Musée, and the students in her seminar "L'objet en contexte : recherches en histoire de l'art et archéologie de l'Asie". It also opens the door to other Parisian collections, including that of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, presented by Michela Bussotti (Director of Studies, EFEO/UMR CCJ).