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One Hundred Horses

datable to 1723–25
Not on view
During the eighteenth century, the Manchu Qing dynasty sponsored a major revival of courtly arts, which attained a new monumental scale, technical finish, and descriptive intricacy. A key figure in establishing this new court aesthetic was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione. A master of vividly naturalistic draftsmanship and large-scale compositions, in Europe he worked as a muralist. Castiglione helped to create a new, hybrid style that combined Western realism with traditional Chinese conventions of composition and brushwork.

This monumental scroll, a unique example of a Castiglione preparatory drawing, is the model for one of Castiglione's most famous paintings, the One Hundred Horses scroll preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The drawing, although done with a brush rather than a pen, is executed almost exclusively in the European manner. Landscape is represented using Western-style perspective, figures are often shown in dramatically foreshortened views, and vegetation is depicted with spontaneous arabesques and cross-hatching. The large scale of the painting also suggests a European influence, as if Castiglione had taken a typical Western canvas and extended its length to make an architectural frieze.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 清 郎世寧 百駿圖白描稿 卷
  • Title: One Hundred Horses
  • Artist: Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining 郎世寧) (Italian, Milan 1688–1766 Beijing)
  • Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
  • Date: datable to 1723–25
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Handscroll; ink on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 37 in. x 25 ft. 10 3/4 in. (94 x 789.3 cm)
    Overall with mounting: H. 38 1/2 in. (97.8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 1991
  • Object Number: 1991.134
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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7650. One Hundred Horses

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