Page 89 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

dappled with azurite blue, malachite green, cinnabar red, or lacquer black,
perhaps in imitation of ancient patinas. Decoration included designs -
probably taotie masks - inlaid in gold and silver as well as splashes of gold
dispersed over the surface like snowflakes or drops of rain [see 34, 35], the
gold preferably the color of the peaches of immortality. Some colors may
have been applied to the surface with a binder, but most were doubtless
achieved through a variety of chemical and thermal treatments. Like the
shape, the warm russet brown surface color signals the direct descent of
the Clague censer from Xuande bronzes. Although the color would seem
to correspond to one of the Xuande browns - perhaps chestnut or wax-
tea brown - its fidelity to the original remains unknown. Whether or not
the early Ming model for the present piece included a taotie mask also
remains unknown, but the interpretation of the mask, like the interpretation
of the vessel itself, reflects seventeenth-century taste. The emphasis on
ornamentation over representation - without the staring eyes, for example,
the motif would hardly be recognizable as a taotie mask - indicates the
seventeenth-century date of manufacture. The complexity of the design,
seen in the use of four taotie masks rather than the traditional two and in
the detailing of the scales on the handles, also attests to the censer's
seventeenth-century date. In addition, the mask's florid style - evident,
for example, in the circuitous path of the lines that describe the nose - is
characteristic of the seventeenth century, as is the reduction of the leiwen
ground to little more than a passing reference.
The six-character mark on the base reading Da Ming Xuandenian zhi
(Made [during the] Xuande era [of the] Great Ming) asserts that this censer
was made during the Xuande period. Since the style clearly dates the censer
to the seventeenth century, the mark must be regarded as spurious, as
must the vast majority of Xuande marks on later bronzes. Renowned for
its exquisite porcelains, lacquers, and bronzes, the Xuande period and its
reign mark came to symbolize quality in the decorative arts, tempting later
artists to furnish their wares with Xuande marks, even when the pieces
clearly were not in Ming, let alone Xuande, style.
9
Tradition holds that genuine Xuande bronzes may have a reign mark
discreetly placed on the underside; that the characters of the mark should
rise in relief and may appear within a rectangular cartouche; that the mark
may comprise two, four, or six characters reading, respectively, Xuande,
Xuandenian zhi, or Da Ming Xuandenian zhi; that, depending upon the
number of characters, the mark may be written in one vertical column
(two or four characters), in one horizontal row (four or six characters), or

1 1 1
T H E R O B E R T H. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N