Birth of the Artist and Architect Giuseppe Castiglione on 19 July, 1688

It was on this day 331 years ago that the Italian missionary, painter, composer, and architect Giuseppe Castiglione was born in Milan. He showed artistic promise in childhood and was given training in painting and music. Aged 19, he joined the Society of Jesus as a lay brother. Soon after, he set off to join the Jesuit missions in China, where artists had been requested.

Arriving in Beijing in 1715, Castiglione served the Kangxi (r. 1661-1722), Yongzheng (r. 1722-1735), and Qianlong (r. 1735-1796) emperors as a court artist for the rest of his life. He never saw his native Italy again.

Melding European painting techniques, such as perspective, with Chinese linear techniques, Castiglione pioneered a new, hybrid school of painting. In addition, he also designed a complex of Baroque-styled buildings and gardens for the Qianlong Emperor in one of the old Summer Palace gardens. He was assisted in this work by other Jesuits skilled in engineering and the arts. The Grand Trianon is said to have been one of the inspirations for the complex, which was named Xiyang Lou in Chinese. Sadly, little remains of the complex, which was burned by the invading Anglo-French forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War.

Castiglione, whose Chinese name was Láng Shìníng (郎世寧), died in Beijing in 1766. The Qianlong Emperor personally wrote his favourite artist’s obituary and commissioned his gravestone.

Much has been written about the vogue for Chinoiserie in the 18th century European courts, but the full story of the European vogue at the contemporary Chinese court remains to be told.

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Castiglione_(Jesuit_painter)

Image: The Haiyantang pavilion designed by Castiglione for the Changchun Garden of the old Summer Palace in Beijing,1750s.

It has been said that Louis XIV built Versailles for his court, Trianon for himself, and Marly for his friends.

To that end, Marly consisted of a main house for the King and his immediate family, and 12 guest pavilions.  Each pavilion contained 2 apartments, one on each floor.  If each guest was married, as many as 48 people could be accommodated.  The pavilions faced each other across a water feature in two rows of 6.  As the picture below shows, Marly was surrounded by forested hills, which must have given it a pleasing sense of privacy.

The Domaine de Marly as it appeared in 1724. Credit: fr.wikipedia.org.

Apart from the Queen, and later the King’s second wife, Mme de Maintenon, only his brother, Monsieur, and his son, the Dauphin, had the right to accompany the King to Marly without being invited and had their own permanent rooms there.  Everyone else, even other members of the royal family and the Princes of the Blood (i.e. the King’s cousins), had to apply for an invitation, either to the King’s private secretary, or directly to the King himself.  As the day for a departure to Marly approached, courtiers would murmur, “Sire, Marly?” as the Grand Monarque made his way from his bedroom at Versailles through the Hall of Mirrors to the chapel.  If the King invited a lady to Marly, her husband was automatically included, unlike at Trianon, where he was not.  Naturally, invitations were highly sought after.

While browsing in my local antiquarian and secondhand bookshop, Condor Fine Books, I happened on a nearly 40-year-old volume entitled Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia, by Suzanne Massie.

Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia, by Suzanne Massie.

Leafing through it, I was delighted to find that an entire chapter was devoted to one my favourite Versailles Century (1682-1789) characters: Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias.  An able ruler, she was also a great beauty and a woman of prodigious appetites.

The UNESCO-listed historic centre of the Mexican city of Queretaro, about 2 hours north of Mexico City, is a treasure house of New World baroque architecture, of which the chief secular jewel is the Casa de la Marquesa.

The façade of the Casa de la Marquesa.

Built in the mid-18C as an aristocratic residence, it’s now run as an elegant boutique hotel.  I didn’t stay there, but I went for a meal in the excellent restaurant.

Following on from last week’s post about the house, today we visit the beautiful gardens of the Palacio Fronteira in Lisbon.

The most famous part of the gardens is undoubtedly the tile-lined water tank.

The water tank at the Palacio Fronteira, Lisbon, in April, 2016.

The upper walk is known as the Gallery of Kings, after the busts of Portugal’s monarchs set in the niches of the blue-tiled wall.

The Leal Senado building in Macau isn’t quite as iconic as the ruins of the church of São Paulo, but it comes close.  The square in front of it is perhaps more famous.

  Senado Square in Macau as seen from a window on the upper floor of the Leal Senado building, 2014.

The building itself is a handsome Portuguese baroque-style edifice.  Nowadays a busy thoroughfare runs directly in front of it, which you have to cross to get to the square, and vice-versa.

The Palacio Fronteira is perhaps my favourite stately home anywhere.

The Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, seen from the famous water tank in April, 2016.

I like stately homes a lot, so that’s a big statement.  I prefer occupied stately homes, and if they’re still occupied by the descendants of the builder, so much the better.  It’s very much in the Palacio Fronteira’s favour that the 13th Marquis of Fronteira, the direct descendant of the 1st Marquis who built the place, lives in it with his family.

Our friends at the official Château de Versailles website have published this stunning rooftop view from the centre block (I assume) down the central axis of the gardens to the Tapis Vert and the Grand Canal beyond.

View from the roof of the Château de Versailles towards the Grand Canal. Credit: http://www.chateaudeversailles.com

Looking at this view makes me feel quite kingly.  Why?  Because Louis XV is known to have enjoyed spending time on the roof of the Château.

When you visit the gardens of Versailles today, the plantings you see are not those of Louis XIV and Le Nôtre.

The Sun King and his great gardener together oversaw the design and planting of the gardens in a series of campaigns that was largely completed by the late 1680s, though the King continued to tinker with various elements until the end of his life.  The only major alteration in the reign of Louis XV was the construction of the Bassin de Neptune in the northeastern corner of the gardens.  Le Bien Aimé otherwise concentrated his gardening efforts on the Petit Trianon.

The Bassin de Neptune on a rainy day in late March, 2016.

The layout of the gardens as we see them today, then, is still more or less as it was at the death of Louis XIV in 1715.  Plants are living things, however, and though some live long, none are eternal.  According to ‘The Gardens’ page on the Château’s official website, it was understood from the start that the gardens would have to be replanted once every hundred years or so.

The staircases of the King’s private apartments (le Petit appartement du roi) have a complicated history.

The original staircase was the famous Ambassador’s Staircase.  It was so grand that Louis XIV used to receive ambassador’s and foreign dignitaries on it.  Later, in the reign of Louis XV, it was also the venue for Mme de Pompadour’s theatre, which was made of wood and could be assembled and dis-assembled on demand.

Engraving of the Ambassadors’ Staircase. Credit: Wikipedia.

In 1754, wishing to create a suite of rooms for his daughter Mme Adélaïde, Louis ordered this grand staircase to be demolished.