Studio: international art (82.1921)

SOME WORKS OF ART FROM THE
FAR EAST, a 0 0 0 0

NOW and again our Museums are
enriched by a gift, bequest, or loan
of art treasures, but a wealth of objets
d'art remains hidden from public view in
private homes. Those of which illustra-
tions are here given are from the remark-
able collection of Mr. A. B. Duigenan,
which includes examples of cloisonne ware,
enamels, textiles, pictures, jades, furniture,
and ceramics of the Far East, and chiefly
Chinese. 0 0 0 0 0
It is a commonplace of the schools that
education comes nearest to that point which
is termed " complete " when we have been
wholly sensitised to perception of beauty ;
yet in days of which we have no record the
Chinese seem to have attained to this
highest of our present standards. They not
only recognised beauty to lie within many
strange forms but they wrought it in many
strange mediums. In the fifth century B.C.
they had so clear a grasp of its essence that
a saying was current amongst them to the
effect that " ornamentation detracts from
merit." 00000
The jade screen, of which two panels are
here shown, appears to be unique. Jade in
China, idealized as the most precious of
gems, is held to be the quintessence of

beauty. It was thought to have been forged
from the rainbow, and to be food for the
gods—indeed as a solace to grief it was
given in powdered form at funerals to the
chief mourners. Magic properties also are
ascribed to it. In Imperial Ritual worship
of Heaven—the most sacred of ceremonies,
since the Emperor is held to be the child of
Heaven—votive objects of jade are used.
The Emperor in his Office of High Priest
wears jewels of jade of divers colours ac-
cording to the part of the Heavens to which
he is appealing ; white jade for west; red
as representing the south ; green for the
east; and yellow for earth. China has her
treasury for jade just as we have our treas-
ury for gold and precious stones. This
particular screen stands nearly seven feet
high, and its eight folds measure over
seventeen feet across. The background is
of a lustrous black lac. On this, raised in
high relief, are figures, foliage, flowers, per-
golas, animals and birds, executed in jade,
and in those semi-precious stones—amber,
amethyst, many hued chalcedonies, jadites,
corals, lapis-lazuli and ivory—on which the
Chinese craftsman has always exercised his
surpassing skill. The scenes depicted pro-
bably represent legends. Buddhist and
Taoist emblems are freely mingled here as
in all Chinese art. It would not be difficult
to exercise a fine freedom of fancy upon the

PORTION OF OPEN-WORK CURTAIN
OR KANZA FROM A TIBETAN TEMPLE

(Original no feet long, 5 feet deep)

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