Copper-plate engravings were first made in China during the Kangxi period by the missionary Matteo Ripa. However, it was after seeing prints done after the battle paintings by the German artist Rugendas (1666-1742) that the Qianlong emperor was inspired to commemorate his own victories in battle against China's Central Asian neighbors in a series of prints. He commissioned the original set of sixteen engravings of his conquests on 13th July 1765 for the central hall of the Palace of Beijing. Reduced versions of full battle paintings were prepared in China by Jesuit missionaries including Castiglione and Sichelbarth, and then sent to France, where the engravings were executed in Paris by eight artists under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin II of the Académie Royale at the Court of Louis XVI. The Qianlong emperor's commission of sixteen copper plates, two hundred copies of each for a total of three thousand, two hundred engravings, and the return of the sixteen original sketches, were delivered by the East India Company to the Qing imperial court on 20th September 1777.