Page 81 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

witnessed by a jade deer holding a branch of lingzhi fungus (Victor Shaw
Collection, Hong Kong), a jade phoenix with a branch of fruiting peach
(Guanfu Collection, Hong Kong), and a jade fish with several stalks of lotus
(excavated from a Jin-dynasty site). 10 By the Ming dynasty, the theme had
gained widespread popularity, with numerous and varied animals, all seem-
ingly domesticated and well trained, clutching stalks of auspicious plants. 11
Apart from its similarity to late Ming lacquer and jade boxes, the
symmetry of the design and its clarity of presentation establish the late Ming
date of this incense box, as do the subject matter and the combination of
low-relief decor and highly textured ground. With their playful attitudes
and their strongly articulated spines that continue well into their tails, the
chi dragons are closely akin in style to one that graces a white jade plaque
excavated in 1966 from the Wanli-period tomb of Zhu Shoucheng 12 and to
those that embellish the top and bottom of the bamboo aromatics con-
tainer carved by Zhu Ying (Zhu Xiaosong; active, late sixteenth - early
seventeenth century) recovered from the same tomb. 13 Popular in ceramic
ware already by the Yuan dynasty, 14 the formalized flower diapers that
texture the background of the Clague box appear frequently in the works
15
of Hu Wenming. Also signalling the late Ming date of this box is its reliance
upon cold working to create both relief decoration and diapered ground,
the technique recalling that of Hu Wenming [see 11]. Thick-walled, both box
and cover were cast, though the diapering was incised and the relief deco-
ration sculptured with a hammer and chisel, which accounts for the relief
elements' impeccably straight, vertical sides and for the chatter marks along
their edges. It is probable (as it also is with the cast works of Hu Wenming)
that the principal decorative motifs were cast in relief but that definition
of form and articulation of detail were accomplished through cold working.

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