PAIR OF VASES

Pair of bronze vases with cloisonné enamel decoration. The shape of this piece corresponds to the Hu type with handles, according to the terminology used for the classification of ritual bronze vessels corresponding to the Shang and Zhou dynasties. During the Ming and Qing dynasties there was a lively interest in antiquity, with a large number of bronze pieces of archaizing taste and style being made in the court workshops. In them, as in the case of the pair in question, types, techniques and decorative motifs are merged, whose sole purpose is the beauty of the objects themselves, ignoring their ancestral ritual use. These pieces are decorated in their handles with elephant heads, being precisely their trunks the ones that form the handles themselves. The neck of the pieces is decorated with concentric circles, thus highlighting its section. The body of the piece is decorated with four cloisonné enamel plaques; the front and dorsal ones are more developed than the smaller lateral ones. In the first ones, we find again the archaizing sense previously mentioned, by choosing as the main decorative motif the image of the animal mask or “taotie”, characteristic of archaic ritual bronzes. At the base of the pieces there is an imperial reign mark (“nianhao”), made in sigillary style, on which we can read: Da Ming Xuande nian zhì; “Made in the reign of Xuande of the great Ming dynasty”. I.C.F. / Extracted from: Isabel CERVERA FERNÁNDEZ: Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Asian Art Collection. Granada, 2002.