Page 164 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

D E N T I C A L L Y S H A P E D A N D D E C O R A T E D , t h e s e t w o foliated and
elegantly attenuated gu-form vases rest on affixed bronze stands cast
I in the form of small wooden pedestals. In the form of a low hexa-
gonal table, each stand has a flat top with a broad circular platform to
receive the vase. A short in-curving leg with indented spine and spreading
foot descends from each of the stand's six corners; short aprons with
bracketed lower edges join the tops of the legs. In traditional fashion,
each gu-shaped vase comprises three sections: a truncated conical base,
a bulbous central knob, and an elongated neck terminating in a trumpet
mouth. Each base consists of two registers: the flaring lower one and the
cylindrical upper one. Each register exhibits a relief pattern of descending
chrysanthemum petals with rounded tips; the petals in the upper register
are centered on the indentations between the petals of the lower register.
The small, bulbous central knob sports two playful low-relief chi dragons
picked out in gilding. Echoing the base, the upper portion of each vessel
rises in two stages, from a short cylindrical shaft to the flaring trumpet
mouth that climaxes in a cusped rim. A relief panel of rising chrysan-
themum petals with rounded tips encircles the lower portion of the neck,
corresponding to the chrysanthemum collar that embellishes the upper
register of the base. Slightly taller and thinner, the chrysanthemum petals
above the central knob are thus also slightly more numerous than their
cousins below. The foliations in the upper portion of the neck correspond
to the cusps at the mouth. Smaller and twice as numerous as the folia-
tions, the petals in the neck's lower register are positioned such that every
other one is centered on a foliation while the alternating ones are centered
on the indentations between foliations. Relief lines on the interior of the
neck correspond to the indentations. Their bodies depicted from above,
the gilded, low-relief chi dragons on the central knob maintain slightly
different stances, the body of one arching upward, the body of the other
curving downward. Shown in profile, the head of the chilong with upward-
arching body has a trunk-like snout; shown from above, the head of the
other chilong has a single horn atop its blunt-nosed triangular face. The
surfaces of the trumpet mouth, flaring base, and table-top portion of the
stand are smooth, but those of the central knob, chrysanthemum panels,
and legs and aprons of the stand are textured; the texturing of the central
knob recalls ring punching while that of the other elements resembles
loosely woven fabric. The low-relief brackets on the aprons were enlivened
with diagonal hatching. Artificially created, the warm brown surface hues
conceal the brassy metal beneath.

1 6 0 10 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E