中文简介：

本书展示了慈禧太后如何利用艺术和建筑来建立她的权威。

慈禧太后（1835-1908）从1861年开始掌控中国朝政，直到1908年去世。她是一个饱受争议的历史人物，政治手腕强硬，除了是一位精明的政治家外，她还是一位艺术赞助人。本书插图精美，揭示了这位太后如何利用艺术和建筑来巩固她的统治。

慈禧的艺术委托是创新的，因为它们统一了当时中国两个遥远的性别概念，展示了她作为君主的力量和智慧，同时突出了她作为女性和母亲的身份。本书研究了委托作品，包括肖像画和照片、陶瓷、时装、建筑和园林设计，以及慈禧创作的作品，如绘画和书法。这是一项令人信服的研究，说明这个女强人是如何同时颠覆和维护清朝的父权制的。

英文简介：

This revelatory book shows how the influential and controversial Empress Dowager Cixi used art and architecture to establish her authority

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject of fascination and controversy, at turns vilified for her political maneuvering and admired for modernizing China. In addition to being an astute politician, she was an earnest art patron, and this beautifully illustrated book explores a wide range of objects, revealing how the empress dowager used art and architecture to solidify her rule.

Cixi's art commissions were innovative in the way that they unified two distant conceptions of gender in China at the time, demonstrating her strength and wisdom as a monarch while highlighting her identity as a woman and mother. Artful Subversion examines commissioned works, including portrait paintings and photographs, ceramics, fashion, architecture, and garden design, as well as work Cixi created, such as painting and calligraphy. The book is a compelling study of how a powerful matriarch at once subverted and upheld the Qing imperial patriarchy.