MA by Research case studies

Master of Arts by Research (2018)

Thesis Title

An Encounter between East and West: The Commission for the Frescoes by the Italian Artist Galileo Chini in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall for King Chulalongkorn of Siam

I have not yet visited Thailand and I have not yet had the opportunity to visit the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in person, but nevertheless I was enthusiastic to begin my research journey to nineteenth-century Siam. I could only imagine the great impact the city of Bangkok had on the Italian architects and artists who worked for King Chulalongkorn. Luckily their accounts and diaries were full of the wonders of the city of Bangkok, and with grateful thanks to the Royal Thai Embassy scholarship I was able to tell some of their stories in the hope that they will not be forgotten, and perhaps one day I may follow their footsteps and see for myself the wonders they beheld.

This thesis was undertaken after my first degree in the History of Design and Art History at the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1990. The MAR was a very valuable experience and gave me the skills I need to further my writing on the subject of the art of Galileo Chini. Without the scholarship I would have been unable to begin working towards further study, and I am truly grateful for having had this wonderful opportunity to study the art and architecture of Thailand.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the hitherto largely overlooked Italian eclectic Stile Liberty frescoes by the Florentine artist Galileo Chini for the Siamese King Chulalongkorn in Bangkok from 1911-13. The study entails an analysis of contributions and effects of Chini’s frescoes on the royal Siamese decorative interior in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall during the period of Modernism in the early Twentieth century. I examine King Chulalogkorn’s desire for modernity, and the political reasons for his two visits to Italy in 1897 and 1907, which culminated in the commissioning of Chini to decorate the Throne Hall. I analyse the meeting between East and West and its fruits, including the cultural and artistic milieu in Florence that Galileo Chini’s art grew from, in particular his Orientalist influences. The influence from Oriental art had a profound effect on Florentine culture through a period of complex cross-cultural interactions as they negotiated modernity under the weight of Renaissance tradition. I also examine Chini’s cross-cultural influences, which employed decorative elements from both Oriental and European art. The research questions ask what was specifically Florentine about the decorative schemes of Galileo Chini in Bangkok; and how did the Italian/Siamese collaborations interpret and re-imagine notions of modernity and Siamese monarchy. The royal Throne Hall and its interior blurred the boundaries between arts and crafts, decoration and high art, East and West, I examine how this meaning was conveyed through decorative interiors with 'readable' or symbolically 'coded' meanings. Analysing the artistic and cultural significance of Chini’s work in the Throne hall, developed into a hybrid style which came to define the period.

In conclusion, it is possible to affirm that during this period in Bangkok in which the Italian artists worked, a creative energy developed thanks to the encounters between these two cultures, which although very different from each other, nevertheless became enmeshed and developed into a form neither entirely Siamese or Italian but a hybrid of both, symbolised by the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall frescoes. The Siam which wished to open itself to the world and Italy which discovered the fascination of the Orient.