The Decoding Aesthetic Order and Authority in Hue Royal Court Furniture: A Quantitative Perspective

Abstract

The art of Nguyễn Dynasty royal court furniture (1802–1945) is often described as a “wooden encyclopedia,” embodying strict rules of authority and aesthetics. However, existing scholarship has largely relied on qualitative interpretation, leaving the implicit rules that structure relationships among techniques, motifs, and colors as hypotheses in need of empirical testing. This paper proposes a quantitative approach to art-historical inquiry. Using an encoded dataset of 74 representative artifacts, the study applies statistical association measures (chi-square tests and Cramér’s V) alongside clustering analysis to examine the underlying aesthetic system. The results provide evidence of a strict “visual grammar,” including a strong preference for openwork carving in the depiction of authority (Cramér’s V > 0.6) and systematic principles of optical contrast within mother-of-pearl inlay. Overall, the study demonstrates how quantitative methods can function as a “data microscope,” offering a pathway toward more explicit and standardized heritage knowledge.