https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/files/original/3b9d295d716ce0f85282eed6cd2a8b5f.jpg a9554bf37809aa5ab5bb84b36141060b Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 3456 x 5184 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Great Pagoda, London Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Architect: Sir William Chambers Photograph: Rafa Esteve Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brendan Glenn Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Completed 1762 Description An account of the resource Though Europe in the 18th century was wracked by internal conflict between great powers and there was significant focus among European intellectuals on domestic matters such as economic or agricultural policy, the continent by no means withdrew or became detached from the rest of the world. On the contrary, the 18th century was a period of significant development both in terms of colonization, as the Atlantic and Indian Ocean trades became increasingly important to European economies, and in terms of the intellectual interest of Europeans in the rest of the world. The countries and peoples of distant lands had long fascinated Europeans, of course, as far-off places tend to fascinate most people, but with the coming of the Enlightenment and the dawn of archeology and anthropology there began to be a growing interest in the collection and categorization of artefacts and practices from around the world. The founding of the British Museum in 1753 is testament to this(Britannica, British Museum), as is the construction of the “Great Pagoda” in Kew Gardens. Built by the architect Sir William Chambers in 1762, the “Great Pagoda” or simply “Chinese Pagoda” was at the time of its construction one of several buildings in Kew Gardens designed in imitation of the architecture found in various countries around the world. Chambers, who had gone on two trips to China and had been struck by the beauty of the famous Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, built his pagoda using the studies he had made of the Porcelain Tower and other, similar structures (Kew Palace, The Great Pagoda at Kew). The building itself is ten stories tall, octagonal, and made of red brick. Each story is topped by an encircling Chinese-style upturned eave, and the roof is surmounted by an elaborate copper spire. Four out of the eight walls on each floor are dominated by large arched windows, with the other walls containing shallow brick niches. From this description one can gather that the overall effect of the structure is, arguably, somewhat surreal and liminal, as if one has stepped into an odd place somewhere between London and Beijing. Though the building looks Chinese in silhouette, its building materials and certain other features (e.g. the muntins present in the windows) mark it as British. Needless to say, the Great Pagoda of Kew Gardens was never intended as a religious structure like its inspirations in China, but simply as a way for the people of London to get a taste of what the “East” was like (Kew Palace, The Great Pagoda at Kew). It can, therefore, be read as part of the Enlightenment project of collecting, both physically and metaphorically, the world and presenting it for the education and entertainment of the European public. This project was in its infancy in the late 1700s, and would only really get going in the mid-1800s, but already this “Great Pagoda” demonstrated its key problem: the Europeans doing the collecting seem to have been unwilling or unable to modify the effect of their own cultural perspective on the work. This unchecked bias produced strange mish-mash buildings which nonetheless were purported to be authentic, but architecture was far from the only realm of study it touched; buildings just tend to show such mistakes on their face. As such, the Great Pagoda can be seen as a kind of metaphor for the issues present in the attitude of the European Enlightenment toward the rest of the world, which were likewise full of misunderstandings and overlooked assumptions. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kew_Gardens_-_Pagoda_01.jpg https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-Museum https://www.hrp.org.uk/kew-palace/explore/the-great-pagoda/#gs.vkoo57A Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons 4.0; free re-use