Page 70 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

expected on items from a single workshop. It must be emphasized, how-
ever, that fewer than one hundred pieces bearing a Hu Wenming mark
have so far come to light; since the workshop was in operation for at least
thirty years, as proved by the two dated censers of 1583 and 1613, and
probably much longer, some variations in style may have more to do with
chronology than with authenticity, especially if different craftsmen were
entrusted with responsibility for adding marks. Because the marks were
incised, it is also theoretically possible that some genuine but originally
unmarked pieces bear spurious marks added at a later date.
The range of shapes associated with Hu Wenming's work clearly
indicates that his primary clients were members of the scholar class.
Obviously very popular in their day, his works did not necessarily meet the
aesthetic standards of the most discerning critics of the time, however; in
his Zhangwu zhi of 1637, for example, the erudite connoisseur and cataloger
of taste Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645) termed Hu's censers vulgar 28 - presum-
ably because of their bright colors and newly invented, fanciful designs
that had little, if anything, to do with antiquity. Even so, Wen recommended
Hu's incense tongs, 29 as did the humble scholar Tu Long (1542-1605) who,
30
among others, composed a treatise on incense. Such assessments convey
insight into the rarefied world of literati taste in the late Ming period; more
important in the present context, however, they confirm Hu Wenming's
historicity and demonstrate that he was not only active in the Wanli period,
but well known by that time.

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