DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0148
CHINESE ART
who were in constant contact with completely barbarian tribes and no
doubt used their superior intelligence to improve on the customs of
barbarian warfare. They were by no means a gentle people, and yet they
had their off-times in which they could appreciate beauty and delicacy
of feeling. After all, Confucius was the product of the later Chou
civilization, and though they did not practise his conception of justice
and moderation they reverenced and respected them as ideals.
In one Yu (145) you could see the remains of two owls back to back.
The ram vase (147) is one in which the two beasts retain their natural
forms as far as the forequarters go. It is a triumph of plastic design
which gives us the feeling of the immense compressed energy of these
people, of the latent power behind all their work. And this is possible
because this artist is much too genuine an artist to underline his effects.
There is no particular emphasis in these rams’ heads; they are only
simplified and stylized so as to harmonize with the forms of the vase. He
saw, too, that these forms needed the short stubby legs to express the
idea of support. And what a suggestion of vital force comes from the
upward sweep of the galb, which gets its impetus as it were from the
downthrust of the feet. The jar itself becomes a kind of living beast.
The Kuang (148) is a quite distinct type, a ritual wine-jug, which
must have had tremendous magic power by its profusion of animal
forms. The jug itself is made of a monster with ram’s horns. The handle
is a bird, but serpents with dragon heads, tigers, elephants, even fishes,
find their place. There is a tendency to build up animals with other
animals. There is a certain lack of style and childlike emphasis on the
monster, and a casual profusion of fancy everywhere.
A close look at the lid shows how nearly realistic these artists some-
times become; for example, the tiger and still more the fish—the ele-
phant is less understood. It is probably an early horse, though I think it
would be wrong to suppose that there is any fixed principle about
realism. It used to be thought that realism always tended to precede
conventions and no doubt many geometrical patterns grow out of the
incessant copying of animal forms, but in many cases artists are quite
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who were in constant contact with completely barbarian tribes and no
doubt used their superior intelligence to improve on the customs of
barbarian warfare. They were by no means a gentle people, and yet they
had their off-times in which they could appreciate beauty and delicacy
of feeling. After all, Confucius was the product of the later Chou
civilization, and though they did not practise his conception of justice
and moderation they reverenced and respected them as ideals.
In one Yu (145) you could see the remains of two owls back to back.
The ram vase (147) is one in which the two beasts retain their natural
forms as far as the forequarters go. It is a triumph of plastic design
which gives us the feeling of the immense compressed energy of these
people, of the latent power behind all their work. And this is possible
because this artist is much too genuine an artist to underline his effects.
There is no particular emphasis in these rams’ heads; they are only
simplified and stylized so as to harmonize with the forms of the vase. He
saw, too, that these forms needed the short stubby legs to express the
idea of support. And what a suggestion of vital force comes from the
upward sweep of the galb, which gets its impetus as it were from the
downthrust of the feet. The jar itself becomes a kind of living beast.
The Kuang (148) is a quite distinct type, a ritual wine-jug, which
must have had tremendous magic power by its profusion of animal
forms. The jug itself is made of a monster with ram’s horns. The handle
is a bird, but serpents with dragon heads, tigers, elephants, even fishes,
find their place. There is a tendency to build up animals with other
animals. There is a certain lack of style and childlike emphasis on the
monster, and a casual profusion of fancy everywhere.
A close look at the lid shows how nearly realistic these artists some-
times become; for example, the tiger and still more the fish—the ele-
phant is less understood. It is probably an early horse, though I think it
would be wrong to suppose that there is any fixed principle about
realism. It used to be thought that realism always tended to precede
conventions and no doubt many geometrical patterns grow out of the
incessant copying of animal forms, but in many cases artists are quite
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