CASTIGLIONE, GIUSEPPE. – Born in Milan on 19 July 1688; placed in the school of a celebrated artist of his time, he immediately displayed such an inclination toward painting that he inspired the highest hopes in this field. Attracted, however, to religious life, on 16 January 1707 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Genoa, admitted to the humble rank of temporal coadjutor. In that year or the following one he executed at least nine paintings, still extant in Genoa, measuring 3 × 1.50 m and depicting religious subjects, for the novitiate’s house or church. Even before the end of the two-year period, undoubtedly in response to a request from the missionaries in China, who had asked for an artist able to work at the imperial court in Beijing, he went to embark in Portugal. There, however, after completing his novitiate and taking his first vows, he was sent to Coimbra, to the celebrated College of Jesus, where he was kept for several years to decorate its domestic chapel. The queen of Portugal herself must have learned of his artistic talents, since at the beginning of 1714 she wished him to paint the portraits of her two children. Finally, urged on by the superior general of the Order, Michelangelo Tamburini, who gave explicit instructions that he be sent to China, where there was
(so called because fame had it that a natural fragrance emanated from her person) Muslim and already the concubine of Hozi Hân, governor of Yarkand, she was taken prisoner of war in 1759 and brought to Cchienlom, who immediately fell in love with her; C., commissioned to paint her portrait in oils, depicted her dressed as a warrior, with helmet, cuirass, and sword. C. also made about ten portraits of Cchienlom. Four of his paintings were displayed at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London in 1935–36.