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Comparison And Castiglione

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The scenes in the prints today are perhaps not exactly like the Jesuit artist Castiglione painted the scene in the large paintings for the Ziguangge.
As mentioned in the previous section, changes were made to the original paintings while reducing them to smaller versions for the copperplates. However, there is evidence of changes made by the European artists while making the copperplates. Hence, in the plates done in France, a dominance of European elements is seen.
By comparing the various available versions of the prints, in the form of paintings, drawings, proofs and prints, one can distinguish certain European elements added by French artists.
Arrangement of subject matter
One can consider the print of the ‘Battle of Qurman’ and compare …show more content…

In the painting, a rhythmic flow in the movement of the soldiers is seen; however, in the print they appear to trample the ground and are too close to each other. They march shoulder-to shoulder in serried rows, in a fashion of the contemporary European style at that time, and are accompanied by cannon carried by animals like horses and camels. Another detail of the soldiers in the painting is that they are named in gold letters in Manchu, typically on their quivers. However, the engraving focuses more on the collectiveness of the army than on their individual identity.
One of the chief losses in the engraving is the distinctiveness among the Qing officers and soldiers. The other changes are in the landscape; the depiction of mountains, trees and sky is very different in the engraving than the painting. The coloured painting has no clouds, whereas the sky in the engravings is embellished with naturalistic clouds. The empty skies is a traditional Chinese stylistic element to provide a blank space for the addition of inscriptions and seals later, however, this must have been an undesirable exclusion for the European artists, and thus, clouds were …show more content…

The baroque style, although originally from Italy (1600), had already reached France in mid-17th century. One can compare the detail to one of the baroque artists (Fig 23) to see the resemblance.

The symbol of the French and an important aspect of the French monarchy, the Fleur-de-lis wouldn’t have been possibly used in China at any point of time in the 18th century. However, it is seen in one of the prints, on the top of a quiver (Fig 24).

The appearance of the Fleur-de-lis in the East Turkestan Campaign can be credited to French engravers, who perhaps added a few French symbols into the scenes.
The inscriptions under the images are the final addition of the European artist to the prints. The final version of the copperplate engravings have writing in three different positions: to the lower left, the name of the artist and the date of the model drawing; in the centre, the name of the supervisor, Cochin; and in the lower right, the name of the engraver and the date of the engraving. Although this varies from print to print, it is an important piece of information for the understanding of the production of the

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