Portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and His Twelve Consorts
1758
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1758
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and His Twelve Consorts is a 1758 unspecified by Giuseppe Castiglione, a Baroque work, depicting Qianlong Reign, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a long scroll with the young Qianlong Emperor in the middle, then his wife and eleven other women lined up beside him. Each face is smooth, each robe stiff with gold thread and tiny flowers. The painting was made by a European priest who lived in Beijing. He mixed Chinese brushwork with Western shadows, so the faces look almost alive. The women’s portraits were added over decades—some by Chinese artists, some by Castiglione. To see how shadows can shape a face, look up chiaroscuro.
This portrait shows the Qianlong emperor at 26, in the first year of his reign. His likeness is followed by portraits of the empress and eleven consorts. Their portraits document the appearances of the court women around the time when they received their respective imperial titles, which occurred at different stages of the emperor's life. The first three portraits were done by the Jesuit (Roman Catholic) missionary artist Giuseppe Castiglione, whereas the later ones were by Chinese court painters. Formal portraiture contributed to the affirmation of status and construction of role and…
Lingfei 令妃 (1727–1775), the first consort depicted in the maroon or “incense-colored" 香色 robe, was the mother of six of Qianlong’s children, including the future Emperor Jiaqing.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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