Italian artistic culture in the Far East. Galileo Chini at the Siamese court in the early twentieth century

he context of the exchanges between East and West from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, this chapter addresses the nature, meaning and cultural impact regarding the presence in Bangkok of Galileo Chini, sent for, in 1911, by Rama VI to create the great decorative panels for the new Throne Hall, the Ananda Samakhom, which had just been finished by Italian architects and engineers hired by the Siamese sovereigns to “modernize” the urban fabric of the capital. The aim is to investigate the effects of these experiences in the Italian cultural context (such as the impact of the Siamese pavilion at the 1911 Turin Exhibition, designed in Bangkok by Turin architect Mario Tamagno, or that of Chini's sceneries, inspired by Siamese art, for the first memorable staging of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot). In addition to the Siamese aspect, the chapter explores, by way of comparison, the events relating to the earlier presence in Japan, between the 1870s and 1880s, of the sculptor Vincenzo Ragusa and the painter Antonio Fontanesi, invited to teach at the imperial academy.