HU Wenming

(China)

Title

Censer 'gui' with fourteen auspicious motifs around rim

Place of origin

China

Period

Wanli 1573 - 1619 → Ming dynasty 1368 - 1644 → China

Year

1573-1619

Media category

Metalwork

Materials used

copper with applied cast bronze handles and parcel gilt band around rim

Dimensions

7.5 x 11.7cm

Signature & date

Signed base [six-character artist seal: made by Hu Wenming of Yunjian - Songjiang, Jiangsu (Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi)] Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 1997

Accession number

368.1997

Location

Lower Asian gallery

Further information

The Ming esteem for early bronzes led to the production of contemporary copies for use on household altars as well as for secular use. Hu catered to this market, specialising in wares for the Chinese scholar, specifically those for the incense cult. His family studio was active in the late Ming in the key cultural area known as Jiangnan to the southwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, a famous centre for metalcraft. Wares such as this censer represent the fascinating co-operation between the elite scholars, who evolved a distinctive aesthetic, and the artist craftspeople they commissioned to articulate this aesthetic. Out of his co-operation came some outstanding works of art, particularly in metalwork, much of which, like this censer, was archaistic in flavour.

Bibliography (2)

Jackie Menzies (Editor), The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 'Bronzes and Jades', Domain, 2003, 77 (colour illus.).

Arts from the Scholar's Studio 1986, Hong Kong, 1986, no.73.