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Later Chinese Bronzes:
A Re-Connection with the Past
Although archaic Chinese bronzes are both well-known and well-represented in collections around the world, collectors in East and West alike have paid but scant attention to later Chinese bronzes, those vases, censers, and other vessels created from Song times (AD 960-1279) through the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) [1]. Despite neglect, such later bronzes recount a telling story about China’s engagement with the early, formative stage of Chinese history and culture, that long era best-known today as the Great Bronze Age (c. 16th century BC-AD 220). In fact, in many ways, later China’s involvement with antiquity parallels the Italian Renaissance’s reconnection with the ancient Greco-Roman past.
By Song times, Chinese historians and philosophers had come to regard the Bronze Age as China’s Golden, or Classical, Age, viewing it as a utopian era with just rulers. More importantly, they rightly recognized it as the period during which lived those philosophers who would become the mainstay of Chinese social, ethical, philosophical, and even political traditions: Confucius (551-479 BC), Mencius (c. 372-289 BC), Lao Zi (c. fourth century BC), and Zhuang Zi (c. fourth century BC). During the Song dynasty, the bronzes and jades that survived from the Bronze Age thus became the artistic symbols of that noble age. Antiquarian interests fired an appreciation of Bronze Age antiquities, leading to the formation of collections of ancient bronzes and jades. Although works of painting and calligraphy had been collected at least since the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the systematic collecting of antiquities had to await the deep interest in antiquity that came in the Northern Song (AD 960-1127).
The literati not only collected ancient bronzes but, on special occasions, used them as incense burners and flower vases—that is, they pressed into service as censers the bronze gui vessels that in antiquity were used for offerings of food to the spirits of deceased ancestors, just as they used as flower vases the trumpet-mouthed gu and zun vessels that originally were designed for offerings of wine to those same spirits. The collecting of ancient bronzes and the desire to own related pieces thus sparked the beginning of a later bronze age beginning during the Northern Song.
Song bronzes typically imitate the shapes of ancient bronzes, though their ornament derives from a variety sources, from ancient vessels to more recent works in other media; their decorative schemes often combine motifs from disparate periods and places. Even so, the favored motifs typically include those of ancient vessels, such as the taotie, or monster, mask and long-tailed birds. Thinly cast, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) bronzes often feature all-over diaper patterns; new shapes appeared to serve new functions, and old shapes accepted modifications to fit new tastes. Non-imperial bronzes of the early Ming show a preference for surfaces with decorated areas contrasting with unembellished ones. The decoration of such Song, Yuan, and early Ming bronzes typically comprises a network of fine, thread-relief lines.
Imperially commissioned bronzes from the Xuande reign (1426-1435) of the Ming dynasty ranked among the most exquisite of all later bronzes, admired for their elegant shapes, delicate inlays, occasional gilding, and perfect casting. Indeed, from Qing times onward, Chinese scholars have generically referred to all later bronzes as Xuanlu or Xuande lu, that is, as “Xuan censers” or “Xuande censers”, a testament to the high regard in which such bronzes are held. The few surviving examples indicate that imperially commissioned Xuande bronzes typically have four- or six-character reign marks reading Xuande nian zhi or Da Ming Xuande nian zhi.
Later bronzes were cast through the cire-perdue, or lost-wax, process, a technique easier and more efficient to employ than the piece-mold technique used for casting bronzes in antiquity. Except for those with gold or silver inlays, bronzes from the Song, Yuan, and early Ming periods typically have decoration integrally cast with the vessel itself. From the mid-Ming onward, bronzes often relied on cold work (chasing and chiseling after casting)—or a combination of casting and cold work—for the creation of their decoration. Occasionally used in the early Ming, gilding soared to popularity in the late Ming, whether enlivening an entire vessel or only localized areas, as did inlay work in gold and silver, whether in wire, sheet metal, or both.
Although literary records mention numerous bronze artisans, the tradition remains largely anonymous because so few bronzes are inscribed with their maker’s name or their place of manufacture. Some bronzes bear the names of Hu Wenming of Yunjian (present-day Songjiang, near Shanghai), who was active in the late Ming period. Even so, more bronzes bear the mark of Shisou than of any other artist, but attributions to the hand of that late Ming to early Qing artist remain problematic; works associated with his name typically sport subtle designs delicately inlaid in silver wire.
Although sometimes resembling that of Ming bronzes, the decoration of Qing bronzes ranges from archaistic to abstract, from formalistic to naturalistic and even to eclectic. Bronzes of the Kangxi period (1662-1722) show a taste for a yin-yang pairing of complementary opposites and for abstract, gold-splashed décor inspired by Xuande bronzes; those of the Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795) eras reveal a preference for floral designs, archaistic dragons and taotie masks, and dragon-and-phoenix motifs. Popular already in the mid-Ming, auspicious designs wishing the viewer wealth, marital happiness, and success in the civil service examinations became even more so in the Qing. Late eighteenth-century bronzes occasionally feature asymmetrical designs that represent a radical departure from tradition, whereas nineteenth-century ones espouse a new-found economy of material, substituting overlays of gold and silver for the more costly inlays of earlier centuries. At their best, Qing bronzes show exquisitely finished surfaces unrivalled by those of other later bronzes.
Robert D. Mowry 毛瑞
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
1 For information on later Chinese bronzes, see: Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes (London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd. in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum), 1990; Robert D. Mowry, China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900 (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum), 1993; Chu-tsing Li and James C.Y. Watt, eds., The Chinese Scholar’s Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period, An Exhibition from the Shanghai Museum (New York: Asia Society Galleries in association with Thames and Hudson), 1987.
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