Page 137 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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nature was reached. This means that the artists had only to loosen up what was rigid

before, to differentiate in surface treatment between flesh and fabric, to animate frozen

faces.” (C. T. Loo and Company 1940a) (Fig. 40)

According to Loo, the artistic flowering in the Tang dynasty was followed by a decline

in the late Tang and the Song dynasties. It was noted, “The well-balanced naturalism of

early T’ang changed while the house still ruled. Bodies again became massive and

lasting, but without losing the knowledge of proportions and textures. Late Tang

sculpture may thus rightly be called the Chinese Baroque.” (C. T. Loo and Company

1940a)

In Loo’s dealing, it is also important to bring Chinese art close to its Western

counterpart in terms of aesthetics and category. The description of a stone slab that Loo’s

firm offered to Denman W. Ross, was an overt paraphrase of Western aesthetic criteria.

Terms such as symmetry, balance, and harmony were used to make the piece appeal to

Ross, the Harvard professor of art and architecture and the author of A Theory of Pure

Design: Harmony, Balance, Rhythm. The offer letter from Loo’s firm stated, “The

sculptor of this slab apparently aimed at symmetry altho (sic) the result as shown in the

picture by no means possesses any scientific correspondence. However, one can plainly

see the sculptor’s attempt at symmetry in the corresponding figures on the two sides with

287 The 1940 catalogue An Exhibition of Chinese Stone Sculptures also noted the abstract
and stylized quality even in Tang sculptures. It stated, “But this tendency towards
naturalism should not be over-emphasized. The description of hair and fur is still done in
parallel lines. Folds and borders of a garment undulate with the regularity of waves.
When the elegance and beauty of natural forms was understood in China, ornaments
followed the same trend and some minor parts of the figurative symbol were never
deprived of their abstract treatment.” (C. T. Loo and Company 1940a)