One Hundred Horses by Lang Shining: A Viewing Guide

Begin with a small group of animals, then follow the landscape into the distance. The scroll’s scale becomes easier to understand when you move between individual poses and the relationships joining the groups.

The Finished Painting at a Glance

These dimensions describe the main painting. Its nearly 7.8-meter length and substantial height give the animal groups and their landscape considerable room to develop.^[1]

The guide to Lang Shining introduces the painter’s wider work. The Qing dynasty supplies the historical setting for his court career.

A Yongzheng Court Project Completed in 1728

The painting belongs to the reign of Yongzheng (雍正, Yōngzhèng). An imperial household record notes an order for Castiglione to make a hundred-horses handscroll in the third lunar month of 1724. The finished work’s own inscription dates it to 1728.^[1][2]

Castiglione also became closely associated with the later emperor Qianlong (乾隆, Qiánlóng), but that later career should be distinguished from the date of this painting. The work was completed before Qianlong’s reign began in 1736.^[3]

The interval between the order and the finished scroll points toward a planned court project. Preparatory designs formed part of Qing court painting practice, allowing a composition to be considered before its final execution.^[2]

That process is especially relevant here because a related preparatory drawing survives. The finished painting can be examined both as an accomplished surface and as the outcome of decisions made while organizing a very long composition.

Many Small Activities Unfold across One Landscape

The handscroll opens at the right with two large pine trees. From there, the viewing sequence extends through groups of horses and their handlers, including scenes of pasturing, bathing by the bank and crossing water.^[2]

Look first at a small cluster. Compare the directions of the heads and bodies, and notice whether an animal is standing, resting or moving. A change in pose can give the group a distinct rhythm without separating it from the surrounding landscape.

Then follow the bank or a patch of open ground toward the next group. Trees, water and changes of terrain help carry attention along the scroll. The horses are distributed through a setting that has its own spatial continuity.

The variety creates several kinds of looking. A close view reveals a particular animal’s posture; a wider view shows how groups are gathered or dispersed. Moving between those scales helps prevent the subject from becoming merely an exercise in counting.

The guide to Chinese scroll formats explains the right-to-left, gradually unfolding experience of a handscroll. A complete digital panorama is useful for orientation, while shorter details recover the relationships within each passage.

Shading and Distance Give the Horses Weight and Space

Castiglione combines a Chinese handscroll format and painting materials with techniques of shading and spatial recession associated with his European training. Changes in scale, clarity and tone help create the effect of distance.^[3]

Choose a relatively large horse in the foreground. Look for changes of tone around the torso or legs that make a surface seem to turn. Then compare it with a smaller animal farther back in the landscape.

The relationship between near and far is doing work alongside the modeling of each body. A distant group can be lighter or less emphatic, while a nearer form offers more detail and stronger presence. The animals therefore occupy different depths rather than sitting evenly across a flat field.

The setting contributes to the same effect. Compare the treatment of a nearby tree or bank with a more distant landscape passage. Notice how much information is supplied at each distance, and how color washes connect the forms.

The result emerges through a combination of methods. The guide to Chinese painting techniques introduces the wider roles of line, wash and texture. For a markedly different treatment of an imperial horse, compare Night-Shining White (照夜白图, Zhào Yè Bái Tú), attributed to Han Gan (韩干, Hán Gàn).

The Preparatory Drawing Is a Separate Museum Object

A large related drawing survives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its catalogue identifies it as a model for the finished Taipei painting and dates it to approximately 1723–1725.^[4]

The paper drawing is especially useful for examining the planning of forms and scenery before the colored silk version. Its brush-drawn lines, foreshortened figures and handling of vegetation display Castiglione’s European training particularly clearly.^[4]

Compare the same area in both versions if detailed reproductions are available. Ask which relationships are already established through line, then look at what the colored version adds through tone and surface description.

The two objects share a composition and title, but have different materials, dates and museum records. Identifying the version first keeps a comparison of their techniques clear.

How to Follow the Horses across the Handscroll

1. Begin at the right. Locate the opening trees and follow the landscape toward the left.
2. Choose a small group. Compare the horses’ poses and directions before looking for the route toward the next cluster.
3. Compare near and far. Look at differences in size, tone and detail between a foreground horse and a distant group.
4. Return with the drawing. Compare a corresponding passage in the preparatory version to distinguish the planning of forms from the effects of the colored surface.

FAQs About One Hundred Horses by Lang Shining

Are Lang Shining and Giuseppe Castiglione the same artist?

Yes. Lang Shining was the Chinese name used by Giuseppe Castiglione, the Italian Jesuit painter who worked for the Qing court.^[1][3]

Is One Hundred Horses an oil painting?

The finished Taipei handscroll is catalogued as ink and colors on silk. Its European-influenced modeling does not make its support or medium oil on canvas.^[1][3]

Was the painting made during Qianlong’s reign?

No. It was completed in 1728 during Yongzheng’s reign. Castiglione’s later association with Qianlong belongs to another part of his court career.^[1][2][3]

Fuentes

[1] National Palace Museum. A Hundred Steeds: object 3614, date, inscription, silk and dimensions

[2] National Palace Museum. Conceiving and Completing One Hundred Horses: commission, viewing sequence and preparatory process

[3] National Palace Museum. A Hundred Steeds: Castiglione’s combination of painting traditions

[4] Metropolitan Museum of Art. One Hundred Horses: preparatory drawing, datable to 1723–1725, accession 1991.134