A monumental and rare painting of horses at pasture


After Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining), Late Qing Dynasty/Republic PeriodInk and colour on silk, depicting a groom in blue robes with a staff, watching over a herd of eight horses at pasture, all amidst a landscape with trees, a lake and rustic European style houses in the background, with apocryphal seals of Lang Shining, framed.244.5cm (96 1/4in) wide x 218 (81 7/8in) high.
|清末/民國 郎世寧（傳） 八駿圖 設色絹本Provenance: Francesco Maria, Marchese Taliani de Marchio (1887 - 1968), Grand Officer of the Italian Crown, Commander of the Order of St Maurice and Lazarus, and Commander of the Order of Pius IX (Ordine Piano), and his wife Archduchess Margaretha d'Austria Toscana, Marchesa Taliani de Marchio (1894 – 1986). According to the collection inventory list, acquired in Beijing.來源： 佛朗西斯高•瑪利亞，塔里安利•得•馬基奧侯爵（1887-1968）及馬加烈特•奧地利-托斯卡納女大公，塔里安利•得•馬基奧女侯爵（1894-1986）伉儷收藏據檔案記載，購自北平Marchese Taliani was a distinguished Italian diplomat who lived through major historical upheavals of the first half of the 20th century, events whose impact affect all to this day. His first diplomatic appointment was to Berlin in 1912; followed by Constantinople in 1913, where during the First World War he negotiated an agreement for the protection of Italian citizens and interests in the (soon to be demise) Ottoman Empire. From 1916 to 1919 he served in St Petersburg, and under the privilege of diplomatic immunity was in a unique position to observe and chronicle first-hand the October Revolution, its day by day development, the subsequent fall of Tsarist Russia and the establishment of the Soviet Republic; from 1919 he served in Rome as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; with later assignments to London (1921 - 1923) and again to Constantinople (1924 – 1928), this time as the Republic of Turkey; from 1929 - 1930 he was in Rome as Head of Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in 1932 he was appointed Italian Ambassador to the Netherlands; in 1938 he was appointed Ambassador to China, where he remained until 1946; and his last diplomatic appointment was in 1951 as Ambassador to Spain until 1952.Sent to China in 1938 as Ambassador to the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, he became an acute - and far from humourless, despite the hardships of everyday life - front line eye-witness of the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Japanese forces captured the capital and attacked Shanghai. When Mussolini recognised Wang Jingwei's Japanese puppet government, Taliani presented his credentials to him. On 8 September 1943, having refused to swear allegiance to the Italian Social Republic (Republic of Salò), he and his wife, the Archduchess Margaretha d'Austria Toscana (1894 - 1986), were arrested and interned by the Japanese in a concentration camp near Shanghai, where they remained for two years until the end of the war. After the end of hostilities, the new government of Alcide De Gasperi reconfirmed him as Ambassador to China until 1946.Many of the purchase invoices survive, providing an important documentation of Chinese art dealers active in Shanghai and Beijing between 1938 and 1946. The majority of the invoices are dated to between December 1938 and July 1943, with a significant gap until April 1946, explained by Marchese and Marchesa Taliani's internment by the Japanese. The long list of dealers demonstrates the vibrant Chinese art market in Shanghai and Beijing in the late 1930s and early 1940s; this list includes the following:In Shanghai - K. D. Lu, Yee Chun Chang, C. K. Chou, Strehlneek's Gallery of Chinese Art, The Midoh Co., Tung Koo Tsar Chinese Curios & Arts Co., Philip Chu, Zui Wha Curios & Co., T. Y. King & Co., King Koo Chai, Tai Loong & Co., Tin Dao Shan Fang, Y. L. Hong, Chu Tsun Tsai, The China Curios Co., Hsueh Ken Chai, Zung Chang Ziang Co., The Little Pagoda, M. L. Kwauh, Hoggard – Sigler, and Foo Yuen Tsai.In Beijing - J. Plaut, Jung Hsing Chai, Mathias Komor, Tung Ku Chai Curio and Picture Store, Yi Pao Chai Jade Store, Jung Hsing Chai, Wan E. Cheng, Yung Pao Chia Jade Store, Mario Prodan, and Tung Yi & Co.Marchese Taliani published three books: Pietrogrado 1917, Milan, 1935; È Morto in Cina, Milan, 1949; and Dopoguerra a Shanghai, Milan, 1958.Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese name: Lang Shining, 1688-1766) was a Jesuit missionary and painter at the Qing Court who served the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors. Originally from Milan, in 1715 he arrived in Macau and reached Beijing a year later where he was presented to the Kangxi Emperor and assigned to work as an artisan in the Palace enamelling workshop. However, his skill in portraiture was particularly appreciated by the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors. One of Castiglione's earliest surviving paintings is One Hundred Horses (百駿圖), painted in 1728 for the Yongzheng Emperor. In this painting of various horses at pasture, Castiglione adapted his Western painting style to Chinese themes and tastes, reducing strong shadows but employing single-point perspective. His influence in bringing European painting technqiues to China was substantial and his paintings of horses in particular were admired and copied well into the 20th century by famous artists such as Pu Ru 溥儒 (1896-1963) and Pu Quan 溥佺 (1913-1991).The present lot, with its vanishing-point perspective and subdued shading was closely modelled after Castiglione's paintings and his paintings of horses in particular. Some of them are identifiable by name, for example, the steed Xue Diandiao (雪點鵰) standing in the foreground. See The Selected Painting of Lang Shih-ning (Josephus Castiglione), vol.II, Hong Kong, 1971. The figure on the far right, however, appears to be more of a shepherd with a staff rather than a groom with a whip, and was probably modelled after other imported European etchings and prints.