Canalblog
Editer l'article Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog
Publicité
Alain.R.Truong
Alain.R.Truong
Publicité
Visiteurs
Depuis la création 50 863 684
Archives
Newsletter
Alain.R.Truong
6 mars 2012

A very rare silvery bronze octalobed mirror with rhinoceroses. Tang dynasty (618-907)

a_very_rare_silvery_bronze_octalobed_mirror_with_rhinoceroses_tang_dyn_d5540059h

A very rare silvery bronze octalobed mirror with rhinoceroses. Tang dynasty (618-907). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012

Of kuihua (sunflower) shape, finely cast in relief with two rhinoceroses with textured hide facing each other across the central knob positioned below a stand of bamboo growing within a trellis fence flanked by two flowering plants and hovering insects, with further insects hovering above a plant rising from rippling water below, which is also flanked by two flowering plants, the reverse finely engraved with Guanyin holding a bowl while seated in lalitasana atop a lotus throne, with some areas of malachite encrustation; 8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) across, 1/8 in. (.3 cm.) thick, box - 912g. Estimate $30,000 - $50,000

唐 雙犀花卉紋葵花式鍍銀銅鏡

ProvenanceRobert H. Ellsworth Collection, New York, acquired in Hong Kong, 1990s. 

NotesThe pair of rhinoceroses on this mirror bear no resemblance to a real rhinoceros, as by the Tang dynasty the rhinoceros was extinct in China. Although a rhinoceros was sent to the capital city, Chang'an in 796, where the Emperor had it housed in the Shanglin Palace, it is unlikely that anyone outside of the palace would have seen it. Therefore, the artisans who made the present mirror and those like it would have had no idea what a real rhinoceros looked like resulting in the fanciful animals seen on the present mirror, and on a similar and slightly larger (24.9 cm.) octalobed mirror (Fig. 1) illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, pp. 240-1, no. 82. Also illustrated is a rubbing of a mirror of the same pattern excavated at Ping Lian, Gansu province, from a Tang dynasty tomb dated to the fifth year of the Dazong reign of the Xuanzong emperor. Two other similar mirrors are published: one in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, by He Lin in Copper Mirrors - 200 Things You Should Know, Beijing, 2007, no. 55; and one by Wang Shilun and Wang Mu in Zhejiang chutu tongjing(Bronze Mirrors Excavated from Zhejiang), Beijing, 2006, black and white pl. 119. 

Christies. Luminous Perfection: Fine Chinese Mirrors from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection, 22 March 2012, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Publicité
Publicité
Commentaires
Publicité