Page 116 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

HE BOWL OF THIS C O V E R E D R E C T A N G U L A R C E N S E R rests on a
rectangular foot with rounded corners, the angled lower portion of
T the foot with a panel of descending lotus petals, the constricted
upper one with a plain vertical wall. The sides of the bowl rise steeply
from the flat floor to the short, undecorated lip that flares and then resolves
itself in a flat rim that supports the cover. Attached with rivets on the
short ends of the bowl, separately cast handles in the form of lion heads
with curly manes and ruyi-shaped noses originally clutched moveable
rings, the butts of the now-lost rings secured in the deep circular recesses
at the ends of the lions' mouths. A tall, rectangular, domed cover with
openwork decoration completes the censer; the cover's walls rise vertically
from the unpierced, skirt-like lip and then turn inward to culminate in the
large, centrally placed, hollow knob whose openwork walls are integral with
those of the cover. A scene of frolicking sea creatures, or haishou, enlivens
the bowl of the censer, the high-relief creatures set against a low-relief
pattern of undulating waves, the form of the waves emphasized by incised
ripples. The haishou include one fish and ten feline-like animals, the animals
dispersed five to a side, the single fish appearing under one handle. The
bodies of only three animals rise fully above the waves, the waters con-
cealing the others to one degree or another. Their tiger-like bodies varying
little, the playful animals sport a variety of maned and unmaned heads,
from feline heads with blunt snouts, to elephant heads with long, curling
trunks, to sleek, porpoise-like heads with short snouts. A single haishou
appears in profile at the center of each long side, its body fully above the
waves, its legs in the 'full gallop' position used in Chinese art since antiq-
uity to convey the impression of swift motion; the other four animals of
each group appear more or less in the corners of their respective sides, each
moving animatedly toward the animal in the center. The animal in the lower
right corner of each side emerges from an indented whirlpool immediately
in front of the central animal, the spiraling waves of the whirlpool bordered
by a ring of whitecaps. Breakers form throughout and cloud heads appear
at intervals along the top. The waters of the bowl, with their amusing haishou,
are merely a backdrop for the auspicious dragons and phoenixes that appear
amidst the clouds of the cover, however. One four-clawed mang dragon
dominates each long side of the cover, and one phoenix in flight each short
end. A study in opposites, the cover presents a series of complementary
motifs: one dragon with mouth open, the other with mouth closed; one
dragon with claws exposed and the other with claws concealed amidst the

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C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E