Page 51 - Chinese Decorative Arts: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 55, no. 1 (Summer, 1997)

Brush Holder
....................................................................................
GuJue (act. late 17th century)
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722)
with hardwood rim and base
Bamboo,
H. 7 in. (17.8 cm)
in honor her
Purchase, Bequest, of
Ellen W. Bamberger
Max
1994
husband, Bamberger,
1994.382
ike Zhang Xihuang's
brush holder, this
example also illustrates Ouyang Xiu's
Ode to the Pavilion of the Inebriated Old Man.
The composition and landscape setting, how-
ever, are constructed very differently here. The
viewers are brought close to the scene, and
the pavilion and the guests are confined in a
narrow space enveloped by massive outcrop-
pings and overhangs of rock, which create
strong diagonal lines in the composition-
pictorial devices characteristic of the Jiading
school (see p. 47).
The central figure inside the pavilion is
by
Ouyang, who is identified the garb of an
official. He is leaning against a table and suc-
cumbing to the influence of wine at his ban-
quet. On the left a monk converses with a
scholar. In the foreground a man fishes by the
Niang Spring, which is described in the poem
as teeming with big fish. Behind a rock to the
left of the pavilion three scholars play chess. On
the other side of the brush holder the figures
by the bamboo grove and the servants tending
horses and a carriage are unrelated to Ouyang's
ode. They were drawn from the conventional
repertoire of figure and literati-gathering
paintings of the time.
A native of Jiading, Gu further developed
the Jiading school of bamboo carving. His
works are known for their highly complex
compositions and meticulously executed
details. He added subtlety to the compositions
by combining high relief with shallow carv-
ing, as seen in the flock of birds flying away
in the distance and the mist lingering on the
roof of the pavilion. WAS

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