Page 15 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

Ancient bronzes were no doubt prized at first as tangible bits of
history - something that the Duke of Zhou or Confucius might once have
held. Scholars quickly realized, however, that many ancient bronzes bear
inscriptions and that the inscriptions constitute ancient documents of
cardinal importance to historians and epigraphers. Finally, bronzes were
accepted on their own merits as works of art. As historical documents, as
works of art, and as relics of the hallowed past, archaic bronzes were
eagerly collected by emperors, aristocrats, and well-to-do scholar-officials
(who are often shown surrounded by them in paintings). Illustrated col-
lection catalogs compiled during the Song served as models not only for
later catalogs but for many later bronzes and ceramics. 9
The literati not only collected ancient bronzes but used them as
incense burners and flower vases on special occasions. Realizing that too
frequent use of their prized antiquities would ruin them, they sought newly
made vessels of similar shape and decoration in bronze and ceramic ware,
encouraging both the renaissance in bronze and the taste for archaism that
is a hallmark of later Chinese culture. In shunning the recent past in favor of
the ancient, the people of Song generated a renaissance that found expres-
10
sion in philosophy, music, epigraphy, painting, and the three-dimensional
arts and that is akin in spirit to the Italian Renaissance.
Song bronzes - a generic term including works of copper, bronze,
brass, and related metals - typically imitate the shapes of ancient bronzes,
though their ornament derives from a variety of sources, from ancient vessels
[catalog number 1] to more recent works in other media [2]. Thinly cast, Yuan
bronzes often feature all-over diaper patterns resembling those in the
borders of contemporaneous blue-and-white porcelain; new shapes appear
to serve new functions [5] and old shapes accept modifications to fit new
tastes [4,6]. Non-imperial bronzes of the early Ming show a preference for
surfaces with decorated areas contrasting with undecorated ones [7, 8, 43].
Imperially commissioned bronzes from the Xuande reign of the early
Ming apparently ranked among the most exquisite of later bronzes, ad-
mired for their elegant shapes, sublime colors, delicate inlays and perfect
casting. For reasons but little understood, virtually all such bronzes have
disappeared, a situation lamented already by late Ming connoisseurs; seven-
teenth-century copies preserve something of their innovative style and
elegance, however, and reveal that they were based as much on Song ceram-
ics as on ancient bronzes [15,16].

T H E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N 15