Lang Shining, is the first artist to create the “combination of Chinese and Western” style of painting.

Giuseppe Castiglione, also known as Lang Shining (郎世寧), was born in the central San Marcellino district of Milan, Italy, As a youth, Castiglione learned to paint from Carlo Cornara at the studio, and he also came under the influence of the famous painter Andrea Pozzo, a member of the Society of Jesus at Trento.

Qianlong Emperor
Portrait by Lang Shining

In 1707, at the age of 19, Castiglione formally entered the Society and traveled to the prosperous city of Genoa for further training. By this time, he had already achieved some repute as a painter and was invited to do wall paintings at Jesuit churches.

Giuseppe Castiglione journeyed to spread the gospel for the Holy See in 1714. Later, he served in the Qing court for over 51 years as a painter.

Castiglione’s style was based on the emphasis on color, perspective, and light found in Italian Renaissance art.

When he arrived in China, he utilized traditional Chinese paper, colors, and brushes, and worked with Ruyi Hall painters to create the “joint Chinese and Western” style of painting.

"combination of Chinese and Western" style of painting

Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring

The Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring used solid Western sketching techniques to capture light and shadow. The detailed layering is representative of Castiglione’s unique style in the Qing court.

This set of sixteen album leaves includes the following flowers, fruit, or plants: tree peony, peach blossom, herbaceous peony, flowering crab apple and magnolia, corn poppy and fringed iris, yellow prickly rose, carnation, cherry, poppy, purple and white lilacs, tiger lily and peony blossom, bamboo and morning glory, lotus and arrowhead, pea blossom and millet, cockscomb, and chrysanthemum. Eight of the leaves also include birds, the contents corresponding to a record of a painting entitled “Album of Flowers” by Giuseppe Castiglione in the Third Edition of Treasured Boxes from the Stone Moat, one of the Qing court catalogues.

The last leaf is signed, “Reverently painted by Your Servitor, Lang Shining (Giuseppe Castiglione).” The precise forms rendered from life with bright and beautiful colors make this rep-resentative of a new model for academic painting that Castiglione formulated at the Qing court.