Page 92 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

ESTING ON THREE SMALL CABRIOLE LEGS, this deep-bowled circu-
lar censer has a large flat base from which the almost vertical walls
R. rise and then flare outward at the top. The integrally cast platform-
like base projects well beyond the wall's perimeter, providing visual support
for the bowl. Separately cast and attached at either side with rivets, the
handles take the form of stylized kui dragons marching upward toward the
lip; their backs arched, the dragons have snouted heads and florid tails that
project beyond the posts for attachment to the vessel. A frontal taotie mask
embellishes each side of the vessel, its nose, mouth, and body described by
leiwen bands inlaid in silver wire, its eyebrows, horns, and selected other
details inlaid in sheet gold and silver. A classic leiwen meander between
bowstring lines borders the top of the mask while a row of interlocked T's
sets off the bottom. Inlaid in silver wire, a band of undulating forms resem-
bling waves but probably representing clouds encircles the lip. A double
row of semi-linked cloud heads in the form of inverted C-scrolls surrounds
the convex edge of the base. Enclosed by a ring of stylized clouds, an
inlaid spiral coils outward on the bulbous portion of each cabriole leg.
Around its periphery, the underside of the base has a wide unembellished
ring that circumscribes the broad, shallow well and that receives the inte-
grally cast legs - which overlap both the underside of the base and its
extended convex edge. At the center of the otherwise plain, flat, counter-
sunk well is a cast mark in six thread-relief kaishu (standard-script) characters
arranged in three columns in a recessed rectangular cartouche, the ground
of which has been darkened to enhance the legibility of the characters. Inlaid
in silver wire, a second mark in lishu (clerical-script) characters also appears
on the base, its two characters appearing one above and one below the cast
mark's central column. The interior of the bowl is undecorated, as are the
backs and bottoms of the legs. The surface of the bronze was chemically
treated after casting to color it a warm rust-brown.
The Xuande mark, the warm rust-brown color, and the relationship
to Song ceramic forms indicate that this seventeenth-century censer imitates
an early Ming bronze of the Xuande period [compare 15]. In fact, illus-
trations of several vessels of this general type appear in the 1526 edition of
Xuande yiqi tupu (Illustrated Catalogue of Xuande Sacral Vessels), albeit
with simpler bases and with handles of a different type. 1 One of several
new shapes that appeared in the Ming, vessels of this cauldron-like form
lack clear antecedents; eclectic rather than radically new, the form draws
elements from the bronze and ceramic traditions, combining them in a
new and novel fashion. Since the Song imperial collection of antiquities

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