Giuseppe Castiglione

Giuseppe Castiglione, SJ(Chinese: 郎世宁 19 July 1688 – 17 July 1766), was an Italian Jesuit lay brother who served as a missionary in China, where he became a painter at the imperial court of the Qianlong Emperor

Castiglione was born in Milan's San Marcellino district on 19 July 1688 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 Although a Jesuit, he was never a priest Rather, he was a lay brother

Giuseppe Castiglione was born in the parish of San Marcellino in Milan; His baptismal certificate is kept in the Diocese's historical archive On January 16, 1707 he became a Jesuit, entering the novitiate of Genoa, where eight great canvases still attributed to him are still preserved Namely for the Chinese mission, the emperor at the time, Kangxi, demanded a talented Italian painter, moved to Portugal in 1710, in Coimbra, awaiting embarkation for Asia Coimbra painted the chapel of the novitiate, and made two portraits for the children of the queen of Portugal, now lost

After leaving Lisbon in 1714, after stopping in Goa, Macau and Canton in 1715, he arrived as a missionary in China, a painter at Beijing's imperial court At the beginning, under Emperor Kangxi he worked in collaboration with other artists, but at that time there seemed to have been no work accomplished exclusively by Castiglione During his stay in China, Castiglione assumed the name of Láng Shínng (郎世寧, Peace of the World)

Kangxi died in 1722 and his successor Yongzheng allowed the Milanese artist to stay at court as a painter

The third emperor under which Castiglione worked was Qianlong, a man of open views and a great lover of art and culture Castiglione spent 51 years as a court painter painting various subjects He created a unique genre, made of a mixture of European painting and aesthetics of the best Chinese society of the eighteenth century Particularly important are portraits of the Emperor and his concubines, courtesy extraordinary, and imperial horses, especially the long roll of one hundred horses and the vertical painting of the eight horses, kept in the museum of the Taipei Palace

His fame and greatness as an artist made Qianlong entrust to Castiglione the design and completion of the fountains and decorations of the western-style pavilions inside the gardens of the Old Summer Palace For this great building, Castiglione met a team of Western artists, including the French architect Michel Benoist, also a Jesuit, and together with these he worked for the construction and completion of those pavilions that became a favorite place for afternoons Emperor and concubines Castiglione is the creation of twelve bronzes that adorned the Yuanming Yuan zodiacal fountain, designed by Michel Benoist Unfortunately, the entire western pavilions of the Old Summer Palace were later destroyed by Anglo-French troops in 1860, so today only ruins can be visited

Giuseppe Castiglione died in Beijing on July 17, 1766 Emperor Qianlong, now his great friend and admirer, ordered that his imperial funeral, corresponding to his high rank of second-class mandarin, be celebrated in his honor

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, the 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 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

In August 1715, Castiglione arrived in Macau, China, and reached Beijing later in the year He stayed at a Jesuit church called St Joseph Mission or Eastern Hall (Dong Tang) in Chinese 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 He was assigned a few disciples, however he initially placed to work as an artisan in the palace enameling workshop

While in China, Castiglione took the name Lang Shining (郎世寧) 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 He was permitted to leave the enamel workshop by Yongzheng as it was affecting his eyesight Although Castaglione was favoured by Yongzheng who commissioned a number of works by him, Yongzheng's reign was a difficult period for Jesuits as Christianity was suppressed and those missionaries not working for the emperor were expelled

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 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

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

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

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 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 The buildings however were destroyed in 1860 during the Second Opium War

Style and techniques:
Castiglione's style was a unique blend of European and Chinese compositional sensibility, technique and themes Western style was adjusted 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 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

The paintings were done on silk, and unlike Western painting where mistake 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 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 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 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

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

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
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