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Two copper-engraved images each 17 x 20 inches. Mounted, framed, and glazed to Museum standard in one frame. Overall size, 39.5 x 24.5 inches, including the frame. Two plates from a suite of 12 depicting the campaign against Taiwan of 1787-88, the last of the series, 'Glorious Return'. There is a poem, printed in Chinese, on each plate. These were based on the Emperor's commentaries on the various battles. These examples were probably designed to be joined as one, though it seems that they were never so joined. There are minor areas of loss of engraved surface in the corners, particularly to the lower right-hand of the left-hand image, resulting in a loss of detail in the foreground. There are also small chips in the margins. Overall they are in very good condition. The "Battle Copper Prints" are a series of prints from copper engravings dating from the second half of the 18th century. They were commissioned by the Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty (1644 1911), who ruled from 1735 to 1796. They depict his military campaigns in China's inner provinces and along the country's frontiers. The master illustrations for the engravings were large paintings done by European missionary artists employed at that time at the court in Beijing. These artists were Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688 1766), French Jesuit Jean-Denis Attiret (1702 68), Bohemian Jesuit Ignatius Sichelbarth (1708 80), and the Italian Augustinian missionary, Jean-Damascène Sallusti (d. 1781). (The engravings of the first set of 16 paintings were not produced in China but were executed in Paris, at that time home to the best European artisans working in this technique. The emperor even decreed that the work emulate the style of the Augsburg copper engraver Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder (1666 1742), whose work he knew. Small-scale copies of the paintings by Castiglione and his Beijing colleagues were sent to Paris to be transferred on to copperplates, printed, and then sent back to China, along with the plates and prints.) Later sets of engravings, as exemplified here, were executed in Peking by Chinese apprentices of the Jesuits and differ markedly in style and elaborateness from those of the Paris series. Qianlong's battle copper prints were just one of the means the Manchu emperor employed to document his campaigns of military expansion and suppression of regional unrest. They served to glorify his rule and to exert ideological control over Chinese historiography. In the history of Chinese art, copper-print engraving remained an episode. Seen in their political context, the Qianlong prints represent a distinct and exceptional pictorial genre and are telling examples of the self-dramatization of imperial state power. The East Asia Department of the Berlin State Library holds a set of five series with a total of 64 prints. This is one of 12 prints depicting the campaign against Taiwan of 1787 88, in which Chinese troops led by General Fukang'an defeated an armed insurrection in Taiwan against the Qing government. Library of Congress After "The Conquest of Western Regions" was completed, Qianlong ordered other albums, dedicated to the victories of the Manchu Armies and the annexation of Greater and Lesser Jinchuan areas (Sichuan) and the lands of Miao people, Annam and Taiwan, to be printed in China. Seller Inventory # 24614
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