The Empire of the Arts; Rarely seen works from three Chinese dynasties go on show in London. Hu Jintao is among the first visitors.

Byline: Tara Pepper

Turn the wrong corner in the new exhibition at London's Royal Academy, "China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795," and you could easily miss the exquisite highlight of the show. Toward the end of the exhibit, which runs until April 12, galleries filled with opulent palace furnishings and precious robes from the era of China's Ching dynasty suddenly give way to a side room containing simple ink paintings of mountains, streams and pine trees. These poetic works mark the quiet rebellion of the intelligentsia, who left or were ejected from court when the Ching replaced the Ming dynasty, and provide a poignant and personal counterpoint to the rest of the show. The delicate drawings express grief, loss and hope as well as a disdain for the new rulers that is not seen elsewhere.

As the West struggles for a deeper understanding of the rising superpower in the East, the Royal Academy's new exhibition is both timely and thought-provoking. The show, which covers the reigns of the emperors Kang-hsi, Yung Cheng and Chien-lung, consists of 400 objects mostly on loan from Beijing's Palace Museum. The majority have never been seen outside the Forbidden City, and some have never been displayed at all; few rooms in the Beijing museum have the climate-control technology necessary for such fragile works. And as the finishing touches were put on the show last week, a more modern expression of dissent echoed in the gallery: campaigners protesting China's human-rights record massed on sidewalks as Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived for a state visit to Buckingham Palace and talks with Tony Blair, as well as a personal tour of the show with the queen.

As dusk fell, London's landmarks were bathed in red light, the backdrop to this theater of diplomatic relations. The exhibit emphasizes the emperors' connections with the West: they relied on Jesuit missionaries to supply them with clocks and astronomical instruments made in Britain, for instance. A striking painting of a white hawk by Giuseppe Castiglione melds a Chinese subject with Western perspective and use of light and shade, to dramatic effect.