Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit painter)

Giuseppe Castiglione, S.J. (simplified Chinese: 郞世宁; traditional Chinese: 郞世寧; pinyin: Láng Shìníng; 19 July 1688 – 17 July 1766), was an Italian Jesuit brother and missionary in China, where he served as an artist at the imperial court of three emperors – the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. He painted in a style that is a fusion of European and Chinese traditions.

Brother

Giuseppe Castiglione
Born(1688-07-19)19 July 1688
Milan, Duchy of Milan (now Italy)
Died17 July 1766(1766-07-17) (aged 77)
Beijing, Qing Dynasty
NationalityItalian
Known forPainting and architecture

Early life

Castiglione was born in Milan's San Marcellino district on 19 July 1688.[1] He was educated at home with a private tutor, then a common practice among wealthy families. He also learned to paint under the guidance of a master. In 1707, he entered the Society of Jesus in Genoa aged 19.[1] Although a Jesuit, he was never ordained as a priest, instead joining as a lay brother.

Works
One of the earliest known painting by Castiglione in China in a blend of Chinese and Western styles, 1723

Paintings

In the late 17th century, a number of European Jesuit painters served in the Qing court of the Kangxi Emperor who was interested in employing European Jesuits trained in various fields, including painting. In the early 18th century, Jesuits in China made a request for a painter to be sent to the imperial court in Beijing. Castiglione was identified as a promising candidate and he accepted the post.[2] In 1710, on the way to Lisbon, he passed through Coimbra where he stayed for several years to decorate the chapel of St. Francis Borgia in the Church of the novitiate, today the New Cathedral of Coimbra. He painted several panels in the chapel and a Circumcision of Jesus for the main altar of the same church.[3]

In August 1715, Castiglione arrived in Macau, China, and reached Beijing later in the year.[1] He stayed at a Jesuit church called St Joseph Mission or Eastern Hall (Dong Tang) in Chinese.[4] He was presented to the Kangxi Emperor who viewed his painting of a dog, another source said a bird was also painted on the spot on Kangxi's request.[2] He was assigned a few disciples, but was placed to work as an artisan in the palace enameling workshop.[5]

The Empress Xiaoxianchun

While in China, Castiglione took the name Lang Shining (郞世寧). Castiglione adapted his Western painting style to Chinese themes and taste. His earliest surviving painting created in such style was from the first year of Yongzheng's reign in 1723.[4] He was permitted to leave the enamel workshop by Yongzheng as it was affecting his eyesight.[2] Although Castaglione was favored by Yongzheng who commissioned a number of works by him, Yongzheng's reign was a difficult period for the Jesuits as Christianity was suppressed and those missionaries not working for the emperor were expelled.[6]

His skill as an artist was appreciated by the Qianlong Emperor, and Castiglione served the Emperor for three decades and was granted increasingly higher official rank within the Qing court.[1] He spent many years in the court painting various subjects, including the portraits of the emperor and empress. Qianlong showed particularly interest in paintings of tribute horses presented to Emperor on which Castiglione painted a series.[6]

In 1765, Castiglione and other Jesuit painters also created a series of "Battle Copper Prints" commissioned by the Emperor to commemorate his military campaigns. Small-scale copies of his paintings were shipped to Paris and rendered into engravings with etching before being returned to China. This series of sixteen prints by Castiglione (who contributed two) and his contemporaries Jean-Denis Attiret, Ignatius Sichelbart and Jean-Damascène Sallusti were created in this way.[7]

Castiglione died in Beijing in 17 July 1766. An obituary was personally penned by Qianlong, who also erected a special stone in Castiglione's memory.[6] He was buried in the Jesuits' Zhalan Cemetery in Beijing.

Ruins of a structure at the Old Summer Palace

Architecture

In addition to his skill as a painter, he was also in charge of designing the Western-Style Palaces in the imperial gardens of the Old Summer Palace with assistance from other Jesuits such as Jean-Denis Attiret.[8] The project was initiated by Qianlong in 1747 in a garden once used by Yongzheng, with the construction of European styled palaces and gardens, aviaries, a maze, and perspective paintings organized as an outdoor theatrical stage, as well as fountains and waterworks designed by Michel Benoist. Castiglione also created trompe-l'œil paintings on the walls of the palaces.[2] The buildings, however, were destroyed in 1860 during the Second Opium War.[2] Castiglione's architectural works were lost, although influences of his trompe-l'œil murals survive in paintings on walls and ceilings which were executed by his assistant in Juanqinzhai in Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City.[9][10]

Style and techniques
Linear perspective painting by Castiglione. (The Old Summer Palace museum collection)

Castiglione's style of painting is a unique blend of European and Chinese compositional sensibility, technique and themes. He adjusted the Western style he was trained in to suit Chinese taste; for example, strong shadows used in chiaroscuro techniques were unacceptable in portraiture as the Qianlong Emperor thought that shadows looked like dirt, therefore when Castiglione painted the Emperor, the intensity of the light was reduced so that there was no shadow on the face, and the features were distinct.[11] Emperors also preferred to have their portraits painted full face with a frontal posture, the royal portraits are therefore usually painted in such a manner.[12]

The paintings were done on silk, and unlike Western painting where mistakes can be reworked, brushwork on silk is almost impossible to be removed, therefore requires careful and precise painting. The painting needed to be worked out in detail beforehand, which Castiglione did in a preparatory drawing on paper before he traced the design onto silk.[5] An example is the most important early work by Castiglione, One Hundred Horses in a Landscape (百駿圖), for which the preparatory drawings survive.[13] It was painted in 1728 for the Yongzheng emperor. Some of the horses are in a 'flying gallop' pose, which had not been done before by European painters.[6] The painting was executed using tempera on silk in the form of a Chinese handscroll of nearly eight meters in length. It was largely done in a European-style in accordance with the rules of perspective, and with a consistent light source. However, the dramatic chiaroscuro shading typical of Baroque paintings is reduced and there are only traces of shadow under the hooves of the horses.[5]

One Hundred Horses in a Landscape

Castiglione was assisted in many of his paintings by a number of court painters. For example, in the painting Deer Hunting Patrol (哨鹿圖, Shaolutu), he would be responsible for painting the portraits of the emperor and other officials on horseback. Other members of the hunting party, the trees and landscape however would be painted by other court painters in a Chinese style that is distinctly different from Castiglione's.[1]

Legacy

Due to Castiglione's work Qing court paintings began to show a clear Western influence. Other European painters followed and a new school of painting was created that combined Chinese and Western methods. The influence of Western art on the Qing court paintings is particularly evident in the light, shade, perspective, as well as the priority given to recording contemporary events.[11]

In 2005, Castiglione became the subject of the television series Palace Artist in China, played by Canadian-Chinese actor Dashan (Mark Rowswell), and broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV).

  • The Qianlong Emperor
  • Another image of Qianlong Emperor
  • The Qianlong Emperor chasing a deer on a hunting trip
  • The Pine, Hawk and Glossy Ganoderma, painted in honour of Yongzheng's birthday, 1724[14]
  • Qianlong collecting lingzhi
  • One of a series in Ten Prized Dogs
  • One of Giuseppe Castiglione's Afghan Four Steeds, features a horse named Chaoni'er (超洱骢, literally Exceeding Piebald).
  • Ayusi assailing the rebels with a lance
  • Flowers in the Vase

See also

References
  1. Musillo, Marco (2008). "Reconciling Two Careers: the Jesuit Memoir of Giuseppe Castiglione Lay Brother and Qing Imperial Painter". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 42 (1): 45–59. doi:10.1353/ecs.0.0035. S2CID 160679588.
  2. Marco Musillo (2011). "Mid-Qing Arts and Jesuit Visions: Encounters and Exchanges in Eighteenth-Century Beijing". In Susan Delson (ed.). Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals. Prestel Publishing. pp. 146–161.
  3. "Colégio do Santíssimo Nome de Jesus / Igreja das Onze Mil Virgens / Catedral de Coimbra / Sé Nova de Coimbra / Igreja Paroquial da Sé Nova / Igreja do Santíssimo Nome de Jesus / Museus da Universidade de Coimbra". Património Cultural - Ministério da Cultura.
  4. Hui Zou (30 April 2011). A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture. Purdue University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1557535832.
  5. "Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766)". Media Center for Art History, University of Columbia.
  6. Lauren Arnold (April 2003). "Of the Mind and the Eye: Jesuit Artists in the Forbidden City in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries" (PDF). Pacific Rim Report. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 August 2016.
  7. Castiglione, Giuseppe; Le Bas, Jacques-Philippe (1765). "Storming the Encampment at Gadan-Ola". World Digital Library (in French). Xinjiang, China. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  8. Li, Lillian M. "The Garden of Perfect Brightness". MIT Visualising Cultures.
  9. Nelson, Cat (7 February 2020). "Regal and Restored: The Forbidden City's Qianlong Garden". Discovery.
  10. "Qianlong Garden Conservation Project". World Monuments Fund.
  11. Yang Xin; Rihard M. Barnhart; Nie Chongzheng; James Cahill; Lang Shaojun; Wu Hung (1997). Three Thousand Years of Chinese Paintings. Yale University Press. pp. 282–285. ISBN 978-0-300-07013-2.
  12. Hui Zou (30 April 2011). A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture. Purdue University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-1557535832.
  13. "One Hundred Horses". The Met.
  14. Fred S. Kleiner (January 2015). Gardner's Art through the Ages: Backpack Edition, Book F: Non-Western Art Since 1300. Wadsworth Publishing. p. 1060. ISBN 978-1285838151.

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