Gardens Evolving thru Time: Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione's 1688-1766 Western-style gardens in China

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione's 1688-1766 Western-style gardens in China - elaborate garden & gate

Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit Italian artist, 1688-1766) Xianfashanmen zhengmian, façade of gate leading to Hill of Perspective

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 court of the emperor. The Jesuits in China asked for a painter to be sent to the imperial court in Beijing. Castiglione volunteered; and in 1715, the 27-year- old Castiglione arrived in China.

Emperor Quianlong (Ch'ien Lung) enhanced 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

About this Blog

Initially mankind tries to gain some control over his constantly changing & often threatening natural surroundings by creating physical spaces to meet his basic needs for shelter, food, safety, & family. Across the Earth, prehistoric man's discovery that some plants harm & others heal was the origin searching for & eventually growing life-sustaining food & early medicines, as well as creating ancient myths about people & plants. A garden became a planned space set aside for the practical cultivation of edible & medicinal plants, and/or for the artistic display, & enjoyment of decorative plants. As centuries passed, many of the "well-to-do" transformed the gardens near their personal living spaces into art hoping to project a desired image of themselves to others - their wealth, power, refinement, & beliefs.