Page 31 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

bronze design and either architectural ornament or woodblock-printed
books, but they suggest that the subject warrants further research, espe-
cially in light of the now well-documented influence of Yuan-dynasty
woodblock-printed secular dramas on fourteenth-century blue-and-white
porcelain from Jingdezhen. 15
In antiquity, three-legged vessels were apparently intended to be
oriented with their handles at right and left and with two legs in front and
a single one in back; 16 as revealed in illustrations in contemporaneous
woodblock-printed books, however, the convention had become misun-
derstood by Song times, with the result that such vessels were typically
placed with handles right and left but with a single leg in front and two in
back, an orientation that was followed for antique vessels as well as for
newly made ones. This censer is thus properly placed with its two ring
handles at right and left and with a single leg at the front center; that is
the only position, in fact, that permits a symmetrical presentation of the
vessel with a full floral panel centered at the front. This misunderstanding
became accepted convention in later periods, so that tripod vessels made
in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, too, are properly oriented with one
leg in front and the remaining two in back [compare 38].
The decoration on the Clague censer was integrally cast with the
bowl portion and shows only minimal cold working. The legs and pushou
masks were cast separately and affixed to the bowl, probably with applied
molten metal. Traces of the bronze applied as a binder create a halo effect
behind the heads of the crouching figures.
The integral casting of body and decoration points to a Song date for
this censer, as does the minimal reliance on cold working. The arbitrary
placement of the pushou-mask escutcheons in relation to the principal
decorative motifs further suggests a Song date, recalling the relationship,
or lack thereof, between the strapwork borders and the interlaced dragon
patterns on the previous hu [1]. The possible relationship of the decorative
scheme to design elements in Southern Song woodblock-printed sutra
frontispieces also argues for an attribution to the Song, as do the rather
thick walls and substantial weight. Finally, this censer is almost identical in
size and overall shape - including tapering walls - to an undecorated Jun-
ware censer on long-term loan to the Harvard University Art Museums,
Cambridge, that is usually dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. 17
Apart from decoration, the only difference between the two censers is that
the Jun piece stands on cabriole legs and lacks pushou-masks.

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 2 7