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GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE. One Hundred Horses

One Hundred Horses. Artist: Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian, Milan 1688-1766 Beijing). Culture: China. Dimensions: Image: 37 in. x 25 ft. 10 3/4 in. (94 x 789.3 cm) Overall with mounting: H. 38 1/2 in. (97.8 cm). Date: datable to 1723-25. During the eighteenth century, the Manchu Qing dynasty sponsored a major revival of courtly arts, which attained a new monumental scale, technical finish, and descriptive intricacy. A key figure in establishing this new court aesthetic was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione. A master of vividly naturalistic draftsmanship and large-scale compositions, in Europe he worked as a muralist. Castiglione helped to create a new, hybrid style that combined Western realism with traditional Chinese conventions of composition and brushwork. This monumental scroll, a unique example of a Castiglione preparatory drawing, is the model for one of Castiglione's most famous paintings, the One Hundred Horses scroll preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The drawing, although done with a brush rather than a pen, is executed almost exclusively in the European manner. Landscape is represented using Western-style perspective, figures are often shown in dramatically foreshortened views, and vegetation is depicted with spontaneous arabesques and cross-hatching. The large scale of the painting also suggests a European influence, as if Castiglione had taken a typical Western canvas and extended its length to make an architectural frieze.
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Author:
Title:
One Hundred Horses
Caption:
One Hundred Horses. Artist: Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian, Milan 1688-1766 Beijing). Culture: China. Dimensions: Image: 37 in. x 25 ft. 10 3/4 in. (94 x 789.3 cm) Overall with mounting: H. 38 1/2 in. (97.8 cm). Date: datable to 1723-25. During the eighteenth century, the Manchu Qing dynasty sponsored a major revival of courtly arts, which attained a new monumental scale, technical finish, and descriptive intricacy. A key figure in establishing this new court aesthetic was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione. A master of vividly naturalistic draftsmanship and large-scale compositions, in Europe he worked as a muralist. Castiglione helped to create a new, hybrid style that combined Western realism with traditional Chinese conventions of composition and brushwork. This monumental scroll, a unique example of a Castiglione preparatory drawing, is the model for one of Castiglione's most famous paintings, the One Hundred Horses scroll preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The drawing, although done with a brush rather than a pen, is executed almost exclusively in the European manner. Landscape is represented using Western-style perspective, figures are often shown in dramatically foreshortened views, and vegetation is depicted with spontaneous arabesques and cross-hatching. The large scale of the painting also suggests a European influence, as if Castiglione had taken a typical Western canvas and extended its length to make an architectural frieze.
Technique/material:
Handscroll; ink on paper
Period:
Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Museum:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Credit:
Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Releases:
Model: No - Property: No
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Image size:
4311 x 3234 px | 39.9 MB
Print size:
36.5 x 27.4 cm | 14.4 x 10.8 in (300 dpi)
Keywords: