Page 183 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

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of the David Collection type. At the same time, the Clague vase represents
Yongzheng antiquarianism at work in bringing the shape and proportions
of the standard temple vase into conformity with those of Bronze Age
zun; it combines elements from standard temple vases with ones from
late Shang bronze zun and with ones from Kangxi-period baluster vases. 6
The vessel thus harmonizes not only with the ancient bronze-style decor
with which it is ornamented but with d/ng-shaped censers of the type with
which it was probably used. Eighteenth-century ceramic counterparts to the
Clague vase are rare, but a late Kangxi cobalt-blue glazed vessel in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has an ovoid body with a related ring on its
inclined shoulder, providing a context for the Clague vase. 7 In contrast, a blue-
and-white presentation vase dated to 1740 and formerly in the Laurent Heliot
Collection, Paris, illustrates the more mannered interpretation charac-
teristic of the Qianlong period. 8
The size, symmetrical decor, and balanced shape with clearly defined
units imbue this vase with a monumentality unknown in bronzes of the Kangxi
era. Like the calligraphy of its mark, the vase reflects a self-confident new
style, at once powerful and mature, restrained and appealing. The style
reflects a keen interest in antiquity, yet it avoids the slavish imitation that is
the bane of many archaistic bronzes; thus, it borrows taotie masks, kui
dragons, triangular lappets, and leiwen grounds from ancient bronzes, but
combines them in a new and fanciful way with strapwork dragons that
have more to do with Kangxi white jade amulets 9 than with antiquity.
Meticulously wrought, the intricate leiwen patterns represent a turn away
from the subtly textured grounds of the Kangxi era, reflecting the influence
not only of late Shang bronzes but of contemporaneous carved red lacquer,
the latter a trend that would become even more pronounced during the
Qianlong era [see 39]. The very dark coating applied to the leiwen ground
may also reflect influence of the lacquer tradition, since eighteenth-century
carved red lacquers sometimes feature their relief ornaments against a
diapered black lacquer ground. 10
This heavy vase is so perfectly finished that it is difficult to ascertain
whether it was integrally cast as a single unit or whether it was cast in two
or three sections. The rings and their supporting escutcheons were sepa-
rately cast and affixed. The principal decorative motifs were likely cast in
relief but articulation of detail was cold worked. The six-character reign mark
was integrally cast, but the two characters on the lip were cold worked.
The base was separately prepared and inset.

T I I E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N 1 7 9