The period of Emperor Qianlong was the most prosperous time in Qing Dynasty in Chinese history, and the art also came to its peak, especially those royal gardens, which was called "Five Royal Gardens" as Yuanming Palace, Changchun Palace, Qingyi Palace, Jingming Palace, Jingyi Palace, was very beautiful, and was more than ten times bigger than the Forbidden City.

At that time, One of the most talented and renowned artists in China, was Giuseppe Castiglione, a missionary from Italian. He was born in Milan in 1668, and received systematic and standard training of painting. As a missionary, he worked in Genoa, Lisbon and Macao. In 1715, at his 27, Giuseppe Castiglione was sent to China by European Catholic Church, and then worked in the imperial court. The Emperor Kangxi was very fond of Castiglione's oil paintings, and this fact kept him in the court till the end of his life. Lot of paintings by Castiglione were based on the true incidents. They have great historical value nowadays. Castiglione was died in 1766, was buried in European Missionary Graveyard in Fucheng Men in Beijing.

The talents of Castiglione were revealed in three aspects: oil paintings ,Chinese water-ink paintings with the techniques of foreshortened figure and chiaroscuro, new style of a combination of Chinese brush work and western three-dimensional concept. In 1723 when Qing Emperor Yongzheng came to the throne, he ordered Yuanmingyuan(Garden of Gardens) to be built and its construction lasted over a period of 150 years. Castiglione's designing in this huge project with his deep understanding of chinese and western art, revealed on those castles of Rococo style ,now still can been seen at the remains in Yuanmingyuan.

The original Yuanmingyuan was composed of 145 buildings and 40 scenic spots. It was also home to some of the most valuable treasures in China.

Most famous architecture in the garden is Haiyan House, with twelve springs along the staircases. The springs is established in accordance with the twelve animals in Chinese lunar canlader, and every spring is headed with an bronze sculpture. In 1860, the British and French armies stormed the garden, burned down most of the buildings and took all of the treasures, including the twelve animal heads. It is said that the heads appeared in Paris for sale, and then disappeared.

In recent years five of the twelve heads were found, and two of them, Cow Head and Monkey Head were auctioned last year in Hong Kong, and reached the final price at more than 15,900,000 HK$. To looking closely at the two heads, you will find the spirit of the sculpture roots on European Naturalism, and the detail reveals characteristics of Castiglione's brushwork.

As a painter, most of Castiglione's works are now kept in Beijing and Taipei. In 2000, the painter's work "Fields in the Autumn" (see the picture) with Emperor Qianlong's inscription was auctioned off at the price of 17,645,000 HK$ at Christie Hongkong Spring Auction.

Castiglione's achievements has great effects on Chinese art, this can been seen on the porcelain of official kilns in Qing Dynasty. The Paintings on the porcelain, whether in the composition or one the objects, had much in common with Castiglione's works.