MARK OF ROMOLO GRASSI, FLORENCE, AFTER 1968

The figures offered here are based on the twelve Chinese astrological zodiac figures which were commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor for the famous horological fountain at the foot of the grand marble staircase on the west front of the Haiyan Tang, the Hall of the Calm Sea, one of the European palaces in the garden of the Yuanmingyuan, the Garden of Perfect Clarity. The spectacular water-work was the centerpiece of Qianlong's most fantastic and whimsical architectural commission, based on European style and technology. Part of a complex water-driven clock, the hydraulics were designed by the French Jesuit Father Michel Benoist (1715-1774) who arrived in Beijing in 1744, and worked under the stewardship of the better-known Jesuit, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1768). It is believed that each of the animal spouted water for two hours at their designated times with the exception of noon when all twelve spouted water in unison. An engraving, one of a set of twenty views of the European pavilions at the Yuanmingyuan, was made in 1783 on the instructions of the Emperor and indicates that the set of animals were arranged in two groups of six seated on rectangular plinths at either end of the fan-shaped pool, flanking a large conch shell above rockwork. The symmetry of this massive and theatrical ornamental display in every way conformed to the Napoleonic prescription of order, balance and harmony in 18th-century French architecture, and is perhaps the Emperor Qianlong's most sumptuous Occidental commission. By 1786, the elaborate hydraulic machinery was already out of order and in October 1860 the fountain was destroyed during the sacking of the Yuanmingyuan by British and French troops. A sketch drawn by an officer who was present at the looting in 1860, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors, 1971, p. 72, shows the animals still in situ around the part of the fountain which is visible.