Sixteen etchings on wove paper depicting palaces, pavilions and gardens created by Giuseppe Castiglione in the Xiyang Lou (Western mansions) on the imperial grounds of the Old S...
Sixteen etchings on wove paper depicting palaces, pavilions and gardens created by Giuseppe Castiglione in the Xiyang Lou (Western mansions) on the imperial grounds of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, including the HaiyanTang (Hall of the Peaceful Ocean), the Hua Yuan (Flower Garden) with the labyrinth Wanhua Zhen (The Ten Thousand Flower Maze) and the largest ater feature of the garden Da Shuifa (Big Water Method). (16)
51 x 88 cm
Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) commissioned the Jesuit and painter Guiseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) to design and lay out gardens and palaces according to the European model within the old Summer Palace Yu Yuan north of Beijing. The garden with the name Xiyang Lou (Western Buildings) after Castiglione's design was built from 1737 to 1766 and combined architectural styles of the Italian rococo with classical Chinese architecture. The building material used was not wood (as in the Yu Yuan) but stone, the roofs were designed in Chinese style.
The Haiyan Tang (Hall of the Calm Sea) was the largest building with the famous and impressive so-called "Water Clock" with twelve figures of human form and animal heads corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac.
The original copper engravings depicting these buildings, gardens and palaces were made according to the designs of Yi Lantai, who was a student of Castiglione and had acquired the technique of central perspective. He had begun in 1781 to document the Xiyang Yuan, which was under construction. The complete work comprised twenty sheets and was completed in 1786. Today the originals are kept in the National Library of China in Beijing.
二十世纪 伊蘭泰 圓明園西洋樓透視圖版畫 （16張）