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Reinventing the Past: Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture—Part 2 |
< Back Ancient Ornaments: the Presence of the Past Jessica Rawson University of Oxford People must recognise traces of the past in objects and texts if they are to reuse antiquity in a later period. If the past can not be identified in words or by visual references, it can not be manipulated by later generations for their social or intellectual ends. Of course the past that is retrieved may be in large part reinterpreted or even invented. This paper will consider one of the elements of visual culture that makes possible such recognition or reinterpretation, namely ornamental schemes, or, as they will be here designated, systems. The term ‘system’ is used to describe the consistent exploitation on artefacts, buildings and dress of a range of easily recognisable parts combined together by certain recurrent rules. If we are to describe an ornamental system, it is best to present examples. Central to the discussion will be the bronzes of the Shang and the Zhou period. But the paper will start by considering the Western architectural system as a way of illustrating the force of ornamental systems in all societies. No single portable artefact category has held in Europe the status that the ritual bronzes commanded in China. In their place, stone buildings were the dominant sources of a powerful ornamental system. Its parts were the components of Greek and Roman ceremonial and public architecture. Columns, capitals, pedestals, plinths, architraves and pediments appear to be 'structural'. But they were developed over time as ornamental details of a multitude of buildings of all periods. Moreover, at all times, such ostensibly structural parts carried mouldings, friezes, scrolls, and wreathes. The rules by which all such components were put together on facades or on small objects mimicked the rules of actual construction. These held sway even when miniature columns, capitals and arches were employed on stone fonts in the Middle Ages or on small caskets for Baroque princesses. Over more than two millennia, the varied styles in which these parts and their combinations were executed are very striking. We know these styles today by the designations of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical for example. Changes in style were also a feature of the manipulation of the components of the bronze ritual vessel system. Such styles made it possible for one generation to identify ‘difference’ and so recognise the creations of earlier times. In the early Chinese system, the ornament of the bronzes had parts that are now commonly described as motifs. These comprise animal faces, or the taotie, dragons, birds and other creatures, with some filler designs. Relatively realistic and abstract forms co-existed. The motifs were combined according to certain rules: first a framework was provided by horizontal and vertical divisions; second the motifs were placed within the sections defined by the divisions. The implicit rules also included the several different ways a repertory of parts was matched to vessels of different canonical forms. For example, the proportions of the narrow borders at the neck and foot were balanced by a wider one around the main part of the body. The intimate relationship of the ornament and vessel form demonstrates the way in which here, as in many other instances, ornament cannot be arbitrarily detached from the surfaces on which it is traditionally employed. The close links between the ornament and the vessel categories enabled visual 'shocks' to be produced when the ornament was applied to objects in other media, jades, ceramics, furniture and even buildings. The paper will consider first the early revivals of bronze vessel shapes and ornament in the Shang and Zhou periods. These demonstrate one of the most important roles of all revivals, namely to make visually present some aspects of the past. As bronzes were linked with particular generations who had commissioned them, copies of ancient examples may have been intended to revive, or at least reinforce, family connections and the status achieved thereby. These early examples will be contrasted with later uses of bronze ornament on buildings and objects in a wide variety of media. The rupture between the ornament and the original forms and the medium, bronze, gave rise to new visual effects and new links between past and present. These no longer depended upon family and genealogy, but were informed by perceptions of the past derived from texts, especially the major ritual texts. Both types of revival will be compared with their counterparts in Europe. These contrasting examples will enable us to consider some of the different roles that the revival of the antique can play in self-presentation and in social interaction. |
