Page 107 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

NUSUAL AMONG MING BRONZES, this lobed, circular censer was
cast in the form of a flower, its six lobes suggesting overlapping
Upetals. The censer's most striking feature is its base, which is as
beautifully and meticulously decorated as its sides; cast in the form of a
mallow blossom, the base has six petals whose tips fold over on them-
selves and whose S-curved profiles impart a sense of rotary motion to the
design. Imitating petals, the comma-shaped lobes on the side of the censer
spring from the flower on the base and grow upward in a swirling fashion,
culminating in the horizontal, elliptical forms that represent petal tops.
The lobes' surfaces are inclined; each petal top is higher at its (proper) right
than at its left, the gradation in height suggesting the petals' overlap.
Bowed forms along the tops and bottoms of the lobes represent petal edges
folding over on themselves, exactly as on the base. A collar of chrysan-
themum petals encircles the base of the short, vertical neck, the round tipped
petals enclosed by relief outlines. Cast separately and attached with pins, a
lotus spray graces each relief lobe, the spray including a blossom in the
center, a bud at the right, and a leaf in profile at the left. Bound with a
ribbon a short distance below the bouquet head, three cut stalks follow
the median line of each lobe to the base. The lightly mottled surface has
assumed a warm reddish brown hue, perhaps naturally, perhaps through
treatment after casting.

This censer derives ultimately from a dish whose walls were shaped
to resemble flower petals; originating in Tang gold and silver, dishes with
petaled walls soared to popularity in Song and Yuan lacquer and ceramic
ware. An early example, a silver gilt cup stand excavated from a Tang-
dynasty site at Xi'an, Shanxi province, has its rim shaped to resemble a
blossom, its six petals radiating outward from the central well; 1 although
the straight-sided petals do not overlap, their upper edges fold over on
themselves, in the same manner as those on the present censer. Ceramics 2
and lacquerwares 3 began to incorporate mallow-petal forms into their
walls in the Song dynasty, sometimes imparting an S-curve to the petal
edges to suggest overlapping and perhaps also to suggest motion. By the
fourteenth century the mallow blossom was appearing with great frequency
in both architecture and the decorative arts. 4 In fact, the blossom on the
base of this censer resembles in form ones that embellish the Juyong
Gate outside Beijing, 5 a structure dedicated in 1345; although the flowers
differ in detail - the Juyong Gate blossoms have elaborate outlines and

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T H E R O B E R T H. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N