File:Chongzhen, the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.jpg

Identifier: internationalstu75newy (find matches)
Title: International studio
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors:
Subjects: Art Decoration and ornament
Publisher: New York
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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-the latter the very greatest antiquity. The scribed by the Taoist ritual. But fortunately thisChinese have unquestionably conceived the most was dispelled by the advent of Buddhism, and a weird delineations of mythical monsters,such as are only seen in dreams. Thevaried forms taken by the Tao-tiehwhich represents a marvellous glutton-ous ogre-head are certainly the mostcurious and fantastic that the mindol man has ever devised. The bronze libation cupof the Chou dynasty shownherewith, exhibits on itshandle one of these ferociousogres; it also has a bandenriched with very curiousfigures of archaic dragons. Bas-reliefs with human-istic figure subjects probablyexisted during the Shangdynasty, but no authenti-cated examples of that arthave yet been discov-ered. Perhaps whenthe spirit of Westerncivilization permeates alittle deeper and lessensthe superstitions of theChinese, further andmore scientific archeo-logical excavations canbe made and we shallthen be able to pene-trate many of the
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new all-pervading impetus was givento almost every Chinese art. This wasnaturally reflected in the works inbronze, for although the old character-istics and decorative motives werelargely retained, a new deftness of touchand an improvement in tech-nique became apparent. Taoism, the first cult orreligion of China, is so in-timately interwoven with theegendary history ot thecountry, that it is practicallyimpossible to divest one fromthe other. The cult can betraditionally traced from theearliest inception ol Pan-ku,their first man or Adamemerging in prehistoric timesfrom chaos on earth atthe mythical dawn oithe Chinese nation, toits full conception asrecorded by Lao Tzu. That venerateiwas born at Lo inow I lo-nan Fu, in thesixth centun B I II I \G 1 ill V 1 \M I MP1 1:1111 Ol THE MING D1 NASI 1 I 9 three b u n d r e d n i n e inceRnAcionAL

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