Page 206 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

The identification of Chinese mythical beasts is notoriously difficult,
as is their dating. Solid cast and relatively heavy, these three recumbent
animals share a number of stylistic features and thus probably date to the
same period: alert countenances, textured surfaces, schematized bodies,
and cursorily rendered feet. Such characteristics stand apart from those of
bronze animals cast during the early Ming [see 43], which usually have curly
manes and tails, textured surfaces contrasted with smooth, plain ones, 6 and
at least a passing reference to naturalistic description evidenced by the
careful delineation of ribs, toes, and other anatomical features. A range of
dates from Yuan to late Ming has been proposed for animals of this type,
though in discussing them, writers have tended to discuss everything but
the reasons for their dating. Both the elements of style just mentioned and
the technique of decoration, which, like late Ming bronze vessels, relies
heavily on cold work, point to the late Ming as the most likely date of manu-
facture. The striations in the manes of all three were imparted through cold
working, as were the scaled surfaces of numbers 45 and 46. Because the
raised paw hinders access to the proper left side of the animal's head, the
artisan was unable to finish the tuft of the mane under the left ear of num-
ber 47; the rough appearance of the tuft reveals that although cast in
relief, such elements were intended to be finished through cold working.
The surface of number 45 has an applied brown coating and that of number
46 has traces of black lacquer or other black substance in the intaglio lines.

2 10 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E I N B R O N Z E