Liang Shining's Hundred Horses

Author: (Qing) Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Lang Shining, born in 1688 and passed away in 1766, was an Italian from Milan. His original name was Giuseppe Castiglione. In his youth, he studied painting in Europe and once painted icons for churches. In 1715, during the 54th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, he came to China as a missionary of the Catholic Jesuit Order. After arriving in the capital, he joined the Ruyi Studio around the first year of the Yongzheng reign (1723) and became a court painter. He skillfully blended Chinese and Western painting techniques, emphasizing the three-dimensional effects in Western painting, perspective, and light and shadow, while valuing realism and the rationality of accurate structure. Due to his ability to paint and expertise in architecture, he participated in the renovation of the architecture of the Yuanmingyuan. He excelled in painting portraits, animals, flowers and fruits, and feathers, especially horses. Most of his works were created using Western painting techniques on silk and paper, with some influence from Chinese methods, focusing on realism and attention to detail. He taught European painting styles and methods to the court painters of China, making significant contributions to the exchange of Chinese and Western cultural arts and arts, and was highly favored by the royal family. After his death, he was buried outside Fuchengmen in Beijing. His surviving works include "Hundred Horses," "Hongli Viewing Horse Shows," and "Songshan Offering Elegant Plants." "Pine and Crane," measuring 223 cm in height and 142 cm in width, is now preserved in the Shenyang Palace Museum. This painting is on silk with colored ink, with Lang Shining painting the pine and crane and Tang Dai adding the large rocks. The towering rocks stand behind the pine trees, with Lang Shining using Western painting techniques, resulting in clear texture and good three-dimensional effects. A pair of richly feathered cranes chase each other through the pine trees, their expressions vivid and lifelike. Various flowers and plants are depicted on the ground, each with its own unique form. The ancient pine trees are strong and straight, with twisted branches and exposed roots that intertwine. The entire painting exudes a harmonious atmosphere. This painting differs significantly from traditional Chinese painting in terms of brushwork, ink, and color application. This is closely related to the author being a Westerner. The painting is stamped with the square seal "Imperial View of Qianlong" on the upper surface; the lower right corner is inscribed with the signatures "Min Tang Dai respectfully painted the rocks" and "Min Lang Shining respectfully painted the pine and crane." Additionally, there are two red square seals, "Min Shining" and "Min Dai," respectively. Lang Shining's "Hundred Horses" scroll is a masterpiece of Qing Dynasty painting, originally stored in the imperial palace where few could view it. After the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Puyi fled, and the Qing palace became the Palace Museum, allowing it to be viewed. Later, the Palace Museum published it in the Palace Weekly, making it public and gaining international acclaim in the art world. The original painting, on silk, is 300 inches long and 36 inches high, and was moved to Taiwan Province before the liberation. According to records, Lang Shining, an Italian, was a painter and architect, born in 1698 and died in 1766. In 1715, during the 54th year of the Kangxi reign, he came to China to spread the Catholic faith and was recruited to the palace as a court painter. He participated in the construction of the Yuanmingyuan and was awarded the third-rank official hat. He was favored by the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors. He died at the age of 68 in the 31st year of the Qianlong reign (). He was granted a posthumous title and buried outside Fuchengmen in Beijing, with a stone monument erected in his honor. Lang Shining's painting style, blending Chinese and Western techniques, is one of his life's masterpieces. He depicted a hundred horses in various poses—lying down, standing, playing, and grazing—each with lifelike expressions. His work surpasses even Han Hu of the Tang Dynasty and Zi An of the Song Dynasty. Many Qing court officials inscribed poems on the scroll, with one inscription dated to the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign (1728) by Lang Shining. This masterpiece was exhibited at the 1915 Pan-American Exposition in the United States, receiving unanimous praise from international audiences and winning a gold medal. The painting depicts a scene of a hundred horses grazing and resting on the grasslands. The horses are depicted in various poses—lying down, standing, playing, and foraging—freely and leisurely, scattered and gathered. In terms of artistic technique, Lang Shining employed Western painting methods such as emphasizing the foreground over the background, rendering the foreground more realistically than the background, and making the foreground larger than the background, creating a sense of vastness and depth. The grass, mountains, water, and people are all depicted with realism and precision. The entire painting is rich in color and complex in composition, with lifelike images. Lang Shining skillfully combined traditional Chinese painting techniques with Western light and shadow perspective and Western pigments to create a harmonious blend of Chinese and Western aesthetics. For example, the horses, people, trees, and slopes in the painting are rendered using the principles of light, giving the objects a strong sense of three-dimensionality. However, the ink lines for pine needles, tree bark, and grass leaves, as well as the texture of the rocks and slopes, still retain traditional Chinese techniques. Even the shadows on the horses and tree trunks are rendered using traditional Chinese methods. This painting, created in the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign (1728), is one of Lang Shining's typical early works.