Virtual Pole Press: Whether it is a phoenix-headed pot or a dragon-headed kettle, they all explain the phenomenon of connotation in the field of art very well.
The work of the Safavid Dynasty of Persia's miniature hand, The Holy Hand Abasi, is realistic and delicate, perfectly reproducing the real scenes of the life of the Persian nobility in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, especially the various artifacts in the painting show the inextricable connection between the East and the West at that time. There is such a glass single-handled wine jug in the "Beauty Mirror Picture", with an olive-shaped body, a garlic pot mouth, a high foot and an outer skim, and an elegant shape.
▲ Reza Abbasi's "Beauty in the Mirror", a miniature album
This type of wine jug has been popular in West and Central Asia since ancient times, and in addition to glass, it is more made of gold and silver. For example, the Northern Zhou gilt gold and silver pot unearthed in Ningxia below, flowing like a duck's beak, the body of the pot hammer out of the human figure and even reveals the atmosphere of Greece and Rome, which fully shows the open mind of China during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and witnessed the cultural exchanges between the East and the West that occurred on the Silk Road.
▲ [Northern Zhou] Gilded gold and silver pot, 37.5 cm high, excavated from the joint tomb of Li Xian and his wife in Shengou Village, the southern suburbs of Guyuan, Ningxia
Collection of Ningxia Guyuan Museum
This high-grade container was brought into East Asia by the Sogdians and was called "Hu Bottle" by Chinese. The Records of the Western Regions contains "Two Golden Hu Bottles and Two Silver Hu Bottles from King Shule to Emperor Wen of Wei", and the Former LiangLu says that "when Zhang Rail was in place, The Western Hu zhi Jin Hu bottles were all whisked up, strange shaped, and tall, two pieces", all of which indicate that as early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Hu bottle had already entered China as a tribute. Du Fu's "Young People's Line" has the sentence "The character of the surname is rough and bold, and the silver bottle is pointed out to taste the wine", pointing out the main function of this bottle in China - serving wine.
▲ [Tang] Blue glazed phoenix head dragon handle pot, height 41.3 cm, caliber 19.3 cm, foot diameter 10.2 cm, excavated from Ji County, Henan
Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
By the Sui and Tang dynasties, Hu Bottle had gradually integrated into the Chinese wind in the Central Plains. Expensive gold and silver materials are replaced by ceramics that are easier to obtain and more convenient to shape, and the open flow of similar petals is often transformed into a very specific phoenix head shape, hence the new name "phoenix head pot". In addition, the dragon-shaped pot handle, honeysuckle, lotus petal, curly leaf, Baoxiang flower, Lux and other common decorative patterns in the Sui and Tang Dynasties all reflect that the fengshou pot is already a new ceramic product that integrates Chinese taste and Buddhist aesthetics.
▲ [Tang] Sancai Hu people ride a lion pattern phoenix head pot
Collection of the Guanfu Museum
This Tang Sancai Hu people riding lion pattern phoenix head pot in the Guanfu Museum is a flat round cup mouth, and a phoenix head with a high crown and a sharp beak is sculpted at the junction of the mouth and neck, and the phoenix mouth is beaded, the feathers are curled, and the eyes are bright. The phoenix protrudes under the slender neck and oval flat abdomen, and the lower flared outer skimmer circle foot. The mouth of the pot is connected to the shoulder in a curved flower shape with a single handle, and the abdomen of the pot is equipped with an oval opening on both sides, and the ground is made of pearl patterns, and one side is decorated with a picture of a Hu people riding a lion, and the other side is decorated with a flying phoenix.
▲ [Tang] Green glazed dragon head pot Height 104 cm Indonesia Belitung sea "Black Stone" out of the water
Collection of the Museum of Asian Civilisations, Singapore
The bottle salvaged from the Black Stone above is more than a meter high, and the head of the pot is a dragon head with a long horn, only to see it open its mouth and roar, as if it wants to swallow the world. To be precise, this bottle is not a phoenix-headed pot, but a dragon-headed pot. Whether it is a phoenix-headed pot or a dragon-headed pot, they all explain the phenomenon of connotation in the field of art very well. "Acculturation" refers to the internalization phenomenon that occurs when different cultures come into contact with each other, and this process includes many stages such as acceptance, synthesis, and creation, through which culture absorbs external factors to enrich itself. Cultural inclusion is different from both cultural confrontation and cultural assimilation, it is a process of subtle absorption, transformation and reconstruction of foreign cultures and heterogeneous cultures, and it is also a process of revaluation, reflection and transformation of local cultures, and Abasi's works are the perfect witness of the cultural exchange of Eastern and Western artifacts. So, what other artifacts can we trace in his paintings? Please refer to the next issue for details.