Page 186 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

HE ONLY KNOWN COMPLETE Qianlong-period five-piece bronze
altar set outside of China, and probably made for use in one of the
T Qing imperial palaces, this exquisitely finished altar set includes a
d/ng-shaped censer, two pricket candlesticks, and two pear-shaped flower
vases. Of compressed globular form, the censer rests on three plain cabriole
legs that issue from the mouths of maned leonine heads. A pair of opposed
S-shaped handles rises from the shoulders. The decoration on the body of
the censer consists of three, five-clawed dragons, each pursuing a flaming
pearl. Centered over the front leg, the horned, whiskered, and maned princi-
pal dragon is coiled about a pearl. The subsidiary dragons face the principal
one, their bodies trailing around the censer's sides and their tails decorating
its back. Wisps of flame emanating from their joints symbolize the dragons'
extraordinary powers, while enveloping clouds indicate the celestial setting.
A ring of stylized lotus petals borders the top of the shoulder; two pairs of
confronting dragons enliven the neck. A medium-brown coating conceals
the brassy color of the bronze on the censer as well as on the candlesticks
and vases. Dragons pursuing pearls constitute the candlesticks' principal
decorative motif, appearing on the column, drip tray, and bell-shaped base.
Like the censer and candlesticks, the vases have dragons pursuing pearls as
their principal ornament.
Introduced by the Buddhist church, five-piece altar sets (wugong)
comprising a censer (xianglu), candlesticks (zhutai), and vases (huaping)
1
probably first appeared in the Southern Song period, with illustrations in
woodblock-printed books confirming that they were definitely in use by the
2
Yuan. Although their use was limited to religious altars, such sets were
quickly appropriated by other Chinese religious institutions, so that they
appear in Confucian and Daoist temples as well as in shrines honoring
various local and city gods, in halls dedicated to the spirits of ancestors,
and on altars in the tombs of high-ranking officials. Five-piece altar sets were
invariably arranged in a line across the altar, with the censer in the center,
the vases on the ends, and the candlesticks between the censer and vases,
3
as indicated by illustrations in early woodblock-printed books and by archae-
ological investigations. 4
In antiquity, ding tripods and other three-legged vessels were appar-
ently intended to be placed with their handles at right and left and with
two legs in front and a single one in back, as indicated by the orientation
of their inscriptions; 5 illustrations in woodblock-printed books show that
the convention had become misunderstood by Song times. Censers with a
compressed globular body and cabriole legs issuing from the mouths of

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