Page 17 - Status & Ritual Chinese Archaic Bronzes

Apart from their function as sacral vessels and apart from the information they convey about
early Chinese culture, beliefs, and funerary practices, we admire Chinese bronzes for their
inventive shapes, bold decoration, and precise casting. In fact, it is the precision of the
casting, from the majestic vessels themselves to their intricately embellished surfaces, that
marks Chinese bronze ritual vessels as truly and wondrously exceptional. Even today it is
difficult to cast bronze with such precision, a telling comment on the exceptionally high level
of technological sophistication present already in the earliest phases of Chinese historical
development.

(Endnotes)
1 See: Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades, Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975, pp. 55 (no. 31), 99 (no. 102),

and 275 (no. 403.
2 See: http://searchcollection.asianart.org/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/18/title-asc/designation-asc?t:state:flow=aa133f6e-fa0c-

4656-9cca-33f7da18c86a
3 See: http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/209921
4 See: http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/zoomObject.cfm?ObjectId=10123
5 Robert Bagley in Jenny F. So, ed., Music in the Age of Confucius, Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler

Gallery, 2000, pp. 35-63.

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