Battle Scene

Copperplate engraving on paper by Jacques Philippe Le Bas after a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione. This battle scene is a proof plate for a set of sixteen engravings commissioned in 1765 by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95) to commemorate his conquests of huge tracts of foreign territory. Resident Jesuit artists at the Chinese court were instructed to prepare the drawings, which were then sent to the workshop of the famous engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin II in Paris. The Chester Beatty Library has a complete set of engravings and four proof plates.