Italian Missionary & China Qing Dynasty Court Painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese Name: Lang Shining) Painting (Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs) Sold for $23 Million (HKD 179.9 Million) in Sotheby’s Auction in Hong Kong
8th May 2026 | Hong Kong
Italian missionary & China Qing Dynasty court painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese Name: Lang Shining) painting (Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs) has been sold for $23 million (HKD 179.9 million) in a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. Giuseppe Castiglione’s Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs – Giuseppe Castiglione’s Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs is a painting intimately connected to the fate of China. It is also the very work that marked the entry of a Western painter onto the stage of the Chinese imperial court, a figure forever etched into the canon of art history. From its very moment of creation as an allegorical painting in the imperial court to win the favour of the Yongzheng Emperor, Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs was destined to be symbolic of the Mandate of Heaven. Its silk threads bear signs of the vicissitudes of time, witness to the nation’s fateful turns of fortune and a bygone era of the last three hundred years. There is perhaps no other painting that beholds such a powerful line of succession, passed through the hands of many of the most influential figures in Chinese history from the Great Qing to this day. Giuseppe Castiglione – Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) was an Italian Jesuit missionary regarded as one of the most significant court painters in history. Castiglione arrived in Macau, China, in August 1715, taking the Chinese name Lang Shining (郎世寧) and spent five decades serving the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors with unwavering commitment. Castiglione became renowned for seamlessly blending Western realism with Chinese aesthetic principles. His portraits of the emperors, empresses, and imperial horses combined meticulous European modelling with the elegance and restraint of classical Chinese brushwork. Beyond painting, he contributed to design projects at the Yuanmingyuan, including architectural and garden schemes that reflected a synthesis of cultures. Highly respected at court, Castiglione adapted his style to suit imperial tastes while quietly fulfilling his Jesuit vocation. Many of the most significant historical events of the mid-Qing period were recorded for posterity through his brush. He passed away in Beijing in 1766 after more than fifty years of service, leaving a body of work that continues to shape understandings of artistic encounter between China and the West.
“ Italian Missionary & China Qing Dynasty Court Painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese Name: Lang Shining) Painting (Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs) Sold for $23 Million (HKD 179.9 Million) in Sotheby’s Auction in Hong Kong “
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Italian Missionary & China Qing Dynasty Court Painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese Name: Lang Shining) Painting (Gathering of Two Auspicious Signs) Sold for $23 Million (HKD 179.9 Million) in Sotheby’s Auction in Hong Kong
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