Gu Ritual Wine Vessel-Shaped Vase
Chinese; Song dynasty, 12th century
Cast bronze with cast and cold-worked surface details
Murray Warner Collection, MWCH6:26
Gu Ritual Wine Vessel-Shaped Vase with Stylized Floral Design
Chinese; Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1722-1735)
Cloisonné enamel; polychrome enamels within brass cloisons on copper base
Gift of Donald K. Ferguson, 1969:35.1d
A gu is a slender-bodied Chinese vessel used to contain wine for rituals. This beaker-like shape was created from antiquity to imperial times. One of the two gu seen here is made of bronze and has a square footprint and the other is cloisonné with a round footprint. Both forms are common and gu were also made of jade (on one such example is displayed in the Treasure Wall in the center of the gallery).
Bronze was a highly cherished in China since antiquity. During the Shang dynasty (circa 1600-1050 BCE), bronzes were used in rituals and also as noble burial gifts. During the subsequent Zhou dynasty (1050-221 BCE), they continued to be used in ceremonies but also to confer power and status as evidenced by inscriptions found inside some vessels.
Early Chinese bronzes were made using a process called section-mold or piece-mold casting. First an artisan created a ceramic model that included some of the relief decoration planned for the final vessel. The model was packed into a clay mold (to which the shape and decor would be transposed) and left to dry. Then the mold was removed in sections from the model and reassembled around a ceramic core secured by spacers the thickness of the desired vessel. Molten bronze was poured into the mold and left to cool, and finally the mold would be broken to reveal the finished bronze vessel.
This bronze gu does not date from antiquity, but rather from the Song dynasty (960-1279) when antiquarianism flourished and ancient shapes were revived. It is characterized by protruding flanges and symbols such as masks and taotie—zoomorphic faces often seen on early bronzes and jades that were probably meant to avert evil spirits.
The colorful gu-shaped vase with repetitive floral, vine, and leaf patterns was created using the decorative cloisonné technique which was imported to China from Europe. Delicate copper wires were bent to outline the design elements and soldered onto the vessel’s metal body. Then the spaces between the wires were filled with vitreous enamels that melted when the piece was fired. Pieces such as this became popular during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
— Keiran Wagner
