CHINA. Giuseppe CASTIGLIONE [known as LANG CHE-NING]. Palace - Lot 240

CHINA. Giuseppe CASTIGLIONE [known as LANG CHE-NING]. Palace pavilions and gardens built by Guiseppe Castiglione in the imperial estate of Yuan Ming Yuan at the Summer Palace in Peking. 1783-1786. Jardin de Flore, Paris, 1977. Large 66 x 96 cm broadside, containing 20 intaglio engraved plates, numbered in Chinese in red ink lower right, in a burgundy leatherette publisher's portfolio. Edition of 275 copies on Rives wove paper, imitating the China paper used for the original edition, of which only three complete copies are known, and from which these engravings are taken. Collection of twenty intaglio plates, from 1783 to 1786, depicting the palaces, pavilions and gardens built for the Chinese emperor, Kien Long, by the Jesuits of the court. These masterpieces of Baroque architecture, largely the brainchild of Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione and nine of his brothers, all engineers, scientists and hydraulic engineers, were designed for a Manchu emperor. They tell the story of European monks transplanted to China who, to the detriment of their faith, built a sumptuous, overflowing, delirious architectural complex a few kilometers from Beijing between 1737 and 1766. Freed from all academic constraints, the Jesuits gave free rein to their unbridled imagination. These prints are the work of Chinese artists working under the direction of the emperor himself. The confrontation between European architecture and the engraved interpretation, using a purely Chinese technique, gave rise to an original work, unique in the history of 18th-century engraving. "By reissuing this little-known work, which has never appeared since its first publication in 1786, Editions du Jardin de Flore hopes to fill a gap and attract the interest of private collectors, libraries, museums and documentation organizations alike. The pure rag vellum, specially manufactured by Moulin du Gué, on which the twenty engravings making up this broadsheet were printed, imitates to perfection the Chine paper used for the original edition at the end of the eighteenth century. A bilingual English-French text tracing the history of these engravings, as well as a bibliographical note, accompany this collection. "Joint: Cent livres illustrés du xve au xxe siècle. Jardin de flore. Color illustrated catalog.