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The Xibeigang Tigers

#Chinesesculpture #sculpture #tigers  #marble #xibeigang #shang

This marble slab carved with two tigers is from a ancient royal tomb not a temple. The use of marble is unusual for Chinese sculpture.

It does illustrate an abiding tendency for Chinese sculptures to work in a raised relief style even when doing large monumental works. One often gets the feeling looking at large chinese sculptures particularly some WEI dynasty pieces that the sculptors and stone masons were given a line sketch and told make this #3D for a tomb/ temple or however you would say that in Ancient China.

The sculptor was rendered the tiger in a stylised manner that reminds me of taotie masks on bronzes.

I wonder if they opted for marble because jade boulders of that size were not available but the rulers commissioning the tomb insisted on a pale color stone?

The trend of using marble didn't last for long. 

Carvers stonemasons and sculptors seem to be have preferred wood and jade and smaller stones until there was another sculpture revival in the WEI dynasty.

I suspect people who had the talent and skills and hand to eye co-ordination to be good carvers were put to use creating the fine details for the molds for casting bronzes for the courts or incising lines to inlay color on lacquer objects and of course shaping jade and other stones into pi discs!

However there are many noteworthy chinese sculptures which we will be taking a look at in the next series of posts.

HAN dynasty Lacquer

#handynasty #lacquer #chinese

Most people think probably of Carved Red lacquer or maybe something with inlay when they think of Chinese lacquer however Chinese lacquer has many styles and techniques as Japanese does.

Here's a lovely example of a simple yet complex box. 

How can I describe it as both? The underlying form is simple and basic but look at the pattern with its engraved lines filled with a different or possibly carved down to a different underlying color. The caption didn't say which technique was used but the result is exquisite. 

My point? Apart form displaying the diversity of Chinese lacquer don't be mislead if you have only seen items made for tourists. Chinese Lacquer is diverse too!

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DING GALLERY

As promised a Gallery in chronological order showing the #Ding Vessel Shape in Ceramics and Metal over the centuries
#chineseceramics #chinesebronze #ding #vessel #design #chineseart

NEOLITHIC

XIA DYNASTY

Yes these first two probably also developed to the gui and other shapes.

SHANG BRONZE

Spring and Autumn Period 

A traditional style ink painting.

Ming Dehua Ceramic Ding 

Finally DING as a word / character also referred to square vessels sometimes 

Or this 

Usually a Tripod of some kind though!

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DING CERAMIC VESSEL

#ding #chinese #ceramic #vessel #dawenkou #neolithic

A Neolithic Ceramic Vessel and a later bronze for contrast.
Clay before Bronze. There's a constant interaction over the centuries back and forth between clay and metal with Tang dynasty wine ewers influencing the shapes of the first teapots later! Then in the Qing elaborate forms  from archaic bronzes inspiring shapes rendered in clay and glaze.

Simple but elegant Neolithic Clay vessels such as this one are the ancestors of later ceramic and bronze tripods with ornate surface decorations. 

This bronze ding is Shang dynasty.

Though this shape is probably also ancestral of the gui shape too!

Next post  some more examples of ding over the ages.

DING VESSEL

A new sequence on #Tripods in Chinese Art starting with the #Ding #radical #hanzi #kanji

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016 

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Oldest known Chinese Lacquer Bowl

This is the oldest earliest Chinese Lacquer Bowl discovered up to this date that I could find a usable image of. It seems allowing for oxidation and aging that form the earliest times the Chinese had a strong preference for RED lacquer though whether the red on this is from the wood or color added to the lacquer or both I don't known. 

It is noteworthy though a preference of red lacquers in Chinese lacquerware even though both the Chinese and Japanese both used red or clear lacquer over reddish woods  and developed a broad range of techniques for polychrome lacquer.

In the heart of all lacquer ware is a concept or feeling that the lacquer should protect and display the beauty and flexibility of wood?