One Hundred Horses
One Hundred Horses is a 7.76 meters wide Qing dynasty silk and ink painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, known in China by his adopted name Lang Shining. It was painted in 1728 for the Yongzheng emperor.
It is currently held in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei; a sketch of the scroll, created around 1723–1725, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
History
In the 18th century, court painters in China reached a new monumental scale of work and refinement of technique. One of the key figures in this process was the missionary Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione, who came to China from Italy. Having previously worked on monumental projects in his homeland, the master created a new style in China that combined elements of Western realism with early Qing dynasty art.Castiglione created a scroll featuring a hundred horses commissioned by the imperial court in 1724, where horses were one of the favourite themes. Subsequently, the theme of horses became one of the main subjects of Castiglione's work, and "One Hundred Horses" became his masterpiece. Art historians Cecil and Michael Burdeley wrote that before creating the scroll, Castiglione was given a sample; presumably, this source of inspiration was Li Gonglin's work "Herd on Pasture," which depicted 1,200 horses and over 140 people. The sheer scale of the scroll suggests a European approach to the depiction. A sketch of the scroll, made several years earlier, was created in a traditionally European manner, despite using a brush. The landscape is drawn in a Western style, the figures of the horses are often depicted in a foreshortened perspective, and the plants are rendered with spontaneous cross-hatching. Despite the work being created during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, he never saw the completed work and it was his successor, the Qianlong Emperor, who declared it a masterpiece in 1735. Castiglione was also declared the chief court painter.
Description
The work was created in 1728 during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor. Numerous horses are depicted in various poses; some of them are peacefully resting on the riverbank, while others are energetically galloping. The horizon line is located at two-thirds of the total height of the image, creating a full and voluminous perception of the painting's space. Trees, vegetation, and other elements of the landscape are rendered in proper proportions in perspective, contributing to the sense of space. Castiglione's painting style differs from traditional Chinese art techniques; using dark and light tones, the artist creates volumetric objects and chiaroscuro. The forms of the horses themselves are defined through lines and areas of colour; nevertheless, Castiglione consciously chose not to create more contrasting shadows on the horses, blending features of two different painting traditions.The movement in the painting is created from right to left. On the right edge of the scroll, an old pine tree is depicted. On the left edge, three horses have crossed the river, and all the others follow them. Perspective is created through different planes, with horses shown at various distances from the viewer, engaged in different activities. The farthest plane is rendered in light, almost transparent tones. Among the innovative features, one can note the partially nude figure of a horse driver in the background—previously, in Chinese painting, the nude human body had not appeared and was considered almost marginal. In the sketch, Castiglione depicted two nude figures, but due to different approaches to depictions of nudity in Chinese culture as compared to Italian culture, he left only the one that draws less attention.
While incorporating innovative elements from Europe, the scroll also adheres to traditional Chinese canons. As the Chinese calligrapher and artist Dong Qichang wrote:
The scroll also contains areas left unpainted, characteristic of Chinese painting. The trees in the painting are depicted in the Chinese manner, but with the use of shading. According to Chinese canons, the trees show roots, intricate and twisted trunks, and bark resembling scales. The trees chosen for the work are Buddhist symbols. The oak symbolizes masculine strength, the willow humility, the pine longevity and resilience, the maple and its leaves represent abundance, and the sophora represents encounters with immortals, fertility, and good fortune. In the foreground, lingzhi mushrooms can be seen on the tree roots, which are a traditional motif in Chinese painting and were considered sacred.