For instance, Emperor Qianlong is famous for his extensive collections of Chinese art, which superseded in scale even those of the Ming dynasty, but also for his preservation of Manchu heritage (through the commission of histories, genealogies, etc.) It was thus that the Qing dynasty was able to develop it’s art, not only through the preservation of Manchurian tradition, but through the assimilation of the culture of the nations they conquered. One can easily find portraits depicting the Qianlong Emperor as a Buddhist God in Tibetan fashion, the Yongzheng Emperor dressed as a Mongol, or even as a French Noble, etc.Naturally, as a result of the increasingly ubiquitous Western world, Chinese art would come to reflect its most prized aesthetic values: the most dominant of these, that was not present in the art of the “orient”, was realism
hope this helps
