The Ziguangge: Hall of Purple Splendor

Already 2,000 years ago, the emperors of China had portraits of loyal officials and generals made in order to display them in their palaces. This presentation features depictions of meritorious officers that the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736–1795) had commissioned for their display in the hall of fame Ziguangge to demonstrate his power and legitimacy. In the 20th century they became spoils of war not one but two times. Located adjacent to the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Ziguangge is a two-storey pavilion. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736 – 1795), the building was a venue for military rituals and banquets and housed paintings with battle scenes of the imperial military campaigns and portraits of meritorious officers. In 1900/01 the hall was plundered during the brutal suppression of the Boxer Movement (Yihetuan) by a multinational coalition, the Eight-Nation Alliance, to which also the Prussian military belonged. All 280 portraits were looted. Many of the paintings ended up also in German collections. In 1945, the USSR administration took the paintings in the Berlin collection, some of which are represented here by black-and-white prints, as war booty; the original works remain in museums in Russia to this day.