Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione's 1688-1766 Western-style gardens in China - E Reservoir with topiaries

Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit Italian artist, 1688-1766) Xushuilou dongmian, east façade of Reservoir

Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian artist, 1688-1766), was a Jesuit lay brother who served as a missionary in China, where he became a painter at the emperors' courts.  In the early 18C, the Jesuit missionaries in China requested Rome to send a painter to the imperial court in Beijing.   Castiglione volunteered; and in 1715, the 27-year-old Jesuit brother arrived in China.  

During Castiglione's lengthy stay in China, Emperor Quianlong (Ch'ien Lung) decided to enhance the vast Summer Palace region in Beijing by having Castiglione design gardens & buildings for the Yuanmingyuan or Old Summer Palace. Castiglione designed Western-Style buildings in the imperial gardens of the Old Summer Palace.  Between 1747-1759, Castiglione’s designs for the Yuen-Ming Yuen, Garden of Perfect Clarity, both the buildings & gardens, were presented to the Emperor for approval & execution. The gardens were set in the midst of a multitude of jets of water, cascades, and fountains. Unfortunately, French & English forces plundered Yuanmingyuan in 1860, and only ruins remain. 

Working under the Chinese name Lang Shining, Castiglione served at the Qing court for 51 years, spanning the 3 emperors of the Kangxi, Yongzheng & Qianlong periods, before he died in 1766.  

See 

 A Suite of Twenty Engravings of the Yuan Ming-Yuan Summer Palaces and Gardens of the Chinese Emperor Ch'ien Lung. (published 1786) at NYPL Digital Gallery.

Twenty views of the European Palaces in the Garden of Perfect Brightness