The Empresses of the Forbidden City: Paintings

Part Two of the Peabody-Essex Museum's wonderful exhibit.  This is all about the  scrolls and paintings, and what a spectacular collection it was.
Here is a small example.

Empress Xiaoding's entourage leaving her parent's residence

en route to the palace"

from the Grand Imperial Wedding of the Guangxu Emperer

(detail)

(detail) 

"Splendid Palaces Filled with Joy"

passageway between exhibits, Peabody-Essex museum.

Empress Xiaomu

Daoguang period 1850

Five-panel screen with phoenixes and birds in landscape

Qianlong period, 1715

(cloisonné!!)

detail of above

detail

detail

detail

The Daoguang Emperer and the Imperial Noble Consort Quan

with the imperial family members in an 

Autumn garden with joy

Daoguang period, 1833-1834

detail from above

Empress Dowager Chongqing at the age of Seventy

Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) 1761

Celebratory banquet at the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility

for Empress Dowager Chongqing's Seventieth Birthday

from Scenes of Bliss and Tranquility

Qianlong period, 1761-1771

(detail)

detail of above

Uyghur entertainers performing for Empress Dowager Chongquin's 

70th birthday, from Scenes of Bliss and Celebration

Qianlong period, 1761-1771 

detail of above

detail of above

Consort of the Qianlong Emperer with a  hairpin

Qianlong period, 1750 or 1760

Auspicious Scene of the Moon Festival

18th or 19th Century

detail of above

detail of above

Sutra on Medicine Buddha

(Bhaisajyaguru) Kangxi period, 1698

One volume from the Kanjur Sutra

Qianlong period, 1776-70

detail of above

Empress Dowager Cixi in the guise of the

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

Guangxu period, 1875-1908

Empress Dowager Cixi

Katherine Carl, painter (American)  1903

Finally, here is a scroll written by the Qianlong emperor for the Deceased Empress.

I give you the translation, by Alister Inglis, although  one wonders how accurate the translation is, in light of the 

need to find rhyming words.  The scheme is ababccdd, and that must have taken some liberties. 

That said, it is a poem that breaks the heart.  

Elegy for the Deceased Empress:

Eternal Lament for a legacy of Goodness

Twenty-two years of your loving kindness,

Thirteen with you as empress by my side.

Now our dream of springtime breeze has all at once

By a river-bank been cast aside.

The dowager remembers keenly your filial piety

The imperial consorts stand in awe of your integrity.

I cannot bear to recite a single line of  'Ospreys Cry'

Now that the conjugal harp strings shattered lie.

Our shared winter nights and summer days

Must now on some future date depend.

Half a lifetime becomes a parting of the ways.

When might fate permit us meet again?

I'm shocked to see your clothes all meaninglessly spread,

Or else the orchid curtains that hand here on the bed.

I recall how you sat before me, all the while

Suppressing tears of grief for our darling child.

To share my joy and sorrow there was ever only you.

Not for a moment will I forget your solicitude.

You surpassed all other women in unrivaled virtue.

Imperial consorts were transformed by your rectitude.

I grieve that there id none on whom our daughter may depend.

I am pained that both our boys have long since met their end. 

I cannot bear reflect once more on former days.

My tortured soul is dark and I toss the brush away.

The Qianlong Emperer, 1748

Translated by Alister Inglis