Page 284 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

82 CHINESE ART.

in 1785. The emperor was fond of inditing odes, and similar
examples, usually in his own handwriting, are often found in
European collections, cut in facsimile under the foot of a piece of
porcelain, or incised in the side of a jade carving raided from a
cabinet in the palace : his published verses fill scores of volumes.
Passing on to champleve enamel, we present an example of Chinese
work in Fig. 94. It is the figure of a celestial Bodhisattva, with the
urna mark on the forehead, moulded in bronze in the Indo-Tibetan
style of the Lama canon, with jewelled topknot and tiara, breastplate
and girdle strung with beads, large circular earrings dragging down
the lobes of the ears, wrapped in a kashaya, hanging down in loose
folds from the arms. The figure, kneeling on one knee, gilded, is
posed upon a lotus pedestal, which is decorated in champleve
enamel, on the top with a brocaded ground, and round the sides
with scrolled clouds and bats flying in the intervals, all worked in
colours on a turquoise blue ground.
The vase in Fig. 95 illustrates a somewhat unusual technique,
being a combination of repousse and cloisonne work, dating from
the Ch'ien Lung period. The details of the decoration are hammered
in from the surface to give greater depth to the cloisons, and the
cloisons are also prominently rimmed so as to project boldly from
the field, which is plainly gilded. The enamels in the trellis-work
and Howers which decorate the vase are left with surfaces intact,
as they melted in the stove, not having been ground down with
pumice or polished. The flowers are filled in with two colours in
each cloison, shading effectively into each other at the lines of
junction.
An incense-burner is illustrated in Fig. 96, one of a pair, fashioned
in the shape of a winged quadruped of fabulous mien, with a grotesque
two-horned head fitted to serve as a movable lid to the urn—the
traditional shon In, or " monster urn " of the Chinese antiquary. It
is of gilt copper, with the details worked in relief and fiUed in with
coloured enamels, finished off with the -graving tool.