View of the Chinese Room

In the Chinese Room Urbani painted scenes depicting The Judgment of the Mandarin and The Mandarin’s Procession. The scenes are set within frames made up of faux marble and open metalwork that “break through” the actual walls, creating a faux Eastern-style pavilion that opens into the surrounding space and also extends to the ceiling and the short walls.

The “chinoiserie” motif had been fashionable in Venice since the early decades of the eighteenth century and was first employed porcelain decorations, then in many other craft forms.