Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit painter)

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.

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 European 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; therefore, royal portraits are usually painted in such a manner.[12]

The paintings were done on silk, and unlike European painting where mistakes can be reworked, in Chinese painting, where brushwork on silk is almost impossible to be removed, it 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 metres 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]

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, and 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).. Castiglione was portrayed by Steven Thomas Boergadine in the TV series Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace; at the end of the 48th episode, Castiglione is seen painting the emperor and the empress together in one of the few happy episodes of the TV series.[14]

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  The Qianlong Emperor
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  Another image of Qianlong Emperor
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  Qianlong Emperor in Ceremonial Armour
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  The Qianlong Emperor Viewing Paintings, c. 1746-50
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  Qianlong Emperor chasing a deer on a hunting trip
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  Fish and Aquatic plants
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  Peacock Spreads its Tail
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  The Pine, Hawk and Glossy Ganoderma, painted in honour of Yongzheng's birthday, 1724[15]
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  Cochin Lemur
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  A white ape
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  Qianlong collecting lingzhi
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  One of a series in Ten Prized Dogs
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  One of Giuseppe Castiglione's Four Afghan Steeds, features a horse named Chaoercong (超洱骢, literally Exceeding Piebald).
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  Ayusi Sweeping Bandits with a Lance
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  Ayusi assailing the rebels with a lance
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  Flowers in a Vase
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  Flowers in the Vase
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  Mimosa pudica

• Jean Denis Attiret
• Louis Antoine de Poirot
• Giuseppe Panzi
• Matteo Ricci
• Ignaz Sichelbarth

• Robert Loehr, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) pittore di corte di Ch’ien-Lun, imperatore della Cina (Rome: ISMEO, 1940).
• George Robert Loehr, “European Artists at the Chinese Court,” in The Westward Influence of the Chinese Arts from the 14th to the 18th Century, ed. William Watson, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia, no. 3 (London: Percival David Foundation, 1972): 333–42.
• Joseph Deheregne, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800 (Rome: Institutum Historicum S. I., 1973), 95.
• Willard Peterson, “Learning from Heaven: the introduction of Christianity and other Western ideas into late Ming China,” in The Cambridge History of China, ed. Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote, 15 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988), 8:789–839.
• Cécile Beurdeley and Michel Beurdeley, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors (London: Lund Humphrey, 1972).
• Hongxing Zhang, ed., The Qianlong Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City (Edinburgh: NMS, 2002).
• Evelyn Rawski and Jessica Rawson, China: The Three Emperors 1662–1795 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005).
• John W. O’Malley et al., eds., The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts 1540–1773, (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999).
• Ho Wai-kam, ed., Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1980), 355.
• Memoria Postuma Fratris Josephi Castiglione, Bras. 28, ff. 92r–93v, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Rome.
• Georg Pray, ed., Imposturae CCXVIII. in dissertatione R. P. Benedicto Cetto, Clerici Regularis e Scholis Piis de Sinensium Importuris Detectae et convulsae. Accedunt Epistolae Anecdotae R. P. Augustini e Comitibus Hallerstain ex China scriptae (Buda: Typis Regiae Universitatis, 1791).
• Marco Musillo, “La famille de Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766)”, (Paris: Thalia Edition, 2007).
• Marco Musillo, “Les peintures génoises de Giuseppe Castiglione”, (Paris: Thalia Edition, 2007).
• Michèle Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, Giuseppe Castiglione 1688-1766: Peintre et architecte à la cour de Chine (Paris: Thalia Edition, 2007), 18–25.
• Marco Musillo, “Bridging Europe and China: The Professional Life of Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766)” tesi di dottorato (University of East Anglia, 2006).
• Marco Musillo: "Reconciling two careers: the Jesuit Memoir of Giuseppe Castiglione lay brother and Qing imperial painter" in Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 42, no. 1 (2008) Pp. 45–59.
• Antonio Franco, Synopsis Annalium Societatis Jesu in Lusitania ab anno 1540 usque ad annum 1725 (Lisbon: Real collegio das artes da Companhia de Jesus, 1760), 441; e Imagem da Virtude em o Noviciado da Companhia de Jesus do Real Collegio do Espirito Santo de Evora (Lisbon: Real collegio das artes da Companhia de Jesus, 1714), 57.
• Relazione scritta da Monsignor Vescovo di Pechino al P. Giuseppe Cerù, in ordine alla Publicazione de Decreti apostolici (1715), ms. 1630, ff. 146r–152v, f. 149r. Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome.
• Copie manoscritte di vari scritti del Servo di Dio Matteo Ripa (1874), Cina e Regni Adiacenti Miscellanea 16, f. 21r, 26 December 1715, APF, Roma.
• Yang Boda, “The Development of the Ch’ien-lung Painting Academy,” in Words and Images, ed. Alfreda Murck and Wen C.Fong (New York: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991), 333–56, 345.
• George Robert Loehr, “Giuseppe Castiglione,” Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1970), 22:92–94, 93.
• Father Jean Sylvain de Neu-vialle (Newielhe, 1696–1764) Relaçao da jornada, que fez ao Imperio da China, e sumamria noticia da embaixada, que deo na Corte de Pekim Em o primeiro de Mayo de 1753, o Senhor Francisco Xavier Assiz Pacheco e Sampayo (Lisbon: Officina dos Herd. De Antonio Pedrozo Galram, 1754), 8.
• Edward J. Malatesta and Gao Zhiyu, eds., Departed, yet Present. Zhalan the Oldest Christian Cemetery in Beijing (Macau and San Francisco: Instituto Cultural de Macau and Ricci Institute, 1995), 217.
• Lo-shu Fu, A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western Relations (1644–1820), 2 vols. (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1966), 1:188–89.
• Ishida Mikinosuke, “A Biographical Study of Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shih ning) a Jesuit Painter in the Court of Peking under the Ch’ing Dynasty,” Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, no. 19 (1960): 79–121, 88–90.
• Lang Shining xiaozhuan (Short biography of Lang Shining) in "Gugong bowuyuan yuankan", n. 2, 1988, pp. 3–26, 91-95.
• Aimé -Martin, M. L. (ed.) Lettres édifiantes et curieuses concernant l'Asie, l'Afrique et l'Amérique, avec quelques relations nouvelles des missions, et des notes géographiques et historiques, Paris 1838-1843, vol. II, III, IV.
• Beurdeley, C. et M., Castiglione, peintre jesuite a la cour de Chine, Fribourg 1971.
• Chayet, A., Une description tibétaine de Yuanmingyuan, in Le "Yuanmingyuan". Jeux d'eau et palais européens du XVIIIe siecle a la cour de Chine, Paris 1987.
• Cheng, T. K., Chinese Nature Painting, in "Renditions", n. 9, spring 1978, pp. 5–29.
• Durand, A., Restitution des palais européens du Yuanmingyuan, in "Arts Asiatiques", vol. XLIII, 1988, pp. 123–133.
• Hou Jinlang- Pirazzoli, M., Les chasses d'automne de l'empereur Qianlong à Mulan, in "T'oung Pao", vol. LXV, 1-3, pp. 13–50.
• Hucker, C., A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, Stanford 1985.
• Jonathan, P.-Durant, A., La promenade occidentale de l'empereur Qianlong, in Le "Yuanmingyuan". Jeux d'eau et palais européens du XVIIIe siecle a la cour de Chine, Paris 1987, pp. 19–33.
• Ju Deyuan-Tian Jieyi-Ding Qiong, Qing gongtong huajia Lang Shining, in "Gugong bowuyuan yuankan", n. 2, 1988, pp. 27–28.
• Kao Mayching, M., China's Response to the West Art: 1898-1937, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1972.
• Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, écrites des Missions Etrangères, Nouvelle edition, Paris 1781, vol. XXII, XXIII, XXIV.
• Liu Pinsan, Huama he Lang Shining "Bajuntu" in "Gugong bowuyuan yuankan", n. 2, 1988, pp. 88–90.
• Nie Chongzheng, Lang Shining, Beijing 1984.

Media related to Giuseppe Castiglione at Wikimedia Commons

• Lang Shining and his Painting Gallery at China Online Museum
• National Palace Museum Taiwan
• Palace Artist on Mark Rowswell's website
• 'Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring'