Lang Shining’s “Portrait of Emperor Qianlong at the Grand Military Parade”

The scroll painting “Emperor Qianlong at the Grand Military Parade” was created during the Qing Dynasty under the reign of Emperor Qianlong, painted by Giuseppe Castiglione, known as Lang Shining in Chinese. This artwork is executed on silk using ink and colors, measuring 332.5 centimeters vertically and 232 centimeters horizontally.

Although this piece lacks an artist’s signature or seal, its style confirms it as an authentic work by Lang Shining.

In the fourth year of the Qianlong era (1739), Emperor Hongli personally inspected the Eight Banners troops’ formations and various weapon drills—including firearms exercises—at Nanyuan. It became customary for Emperor Qianlong to hold such grand military reviews every three years to boost morale and showcase imperial might.

This portrait captures Hongli at age 29, donning full military attire, radiating vigor and authority. It represents one of Castiglione’s masterpieces from his artistic prime. At this stage, however, he was still assimilating traditional Chinese painting techniques. In this work, he employed conventional Chinese tools and materials yet achieved an effect reminiscent of Western fine-brush oil painting.

The painter minimized the use of chiaroscuro modeling for scenery, figures, and horses, opting instead for flat lighting to handle light and shadow. Outlines are present primarily as contours but are nearly obscured by layers of color. The clouds in the sky are rendered entirely through Western methods, while foreground foliage resembles Western still-life studies. Only the distant mountains retain some conventions of Qing court realistic landscape traditions landscape traditions.