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Description

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) was a Catholic Jesuit monk and painter from Milan, Italy. In 1715 (the 54th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty), he came to China to preach and immediately went to the imperial palace to work as a palace painter. After experiencing the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong dynasties, he engaged in painting in China for more than 50 years and participated in the design of the Western Tower in the Old Summer Palace. He was one of the top ten palace painters of the Qing Dynasty. Lang Shining is skilled in painting horses, portraits, flowers and animals. His style emphasizes the integration of Western painting techniques with traditional Chinese brush and ink, which was favored by the emperor and greatly influenced the Qing court painting and aesthetic taste after Kangxi.