vase

霏雪地套红“八大锤”雕刻玻璃大瓶 The vase was made by blowing snowflake glass overlaid with a thick layer of copper red glass, into a bottle shape. Enormous time was spent on carving away the unnecessary part of the red glass to reveal the contrast inner layer of snowflake glass to achieve cameo patterns. The stories on the vase stem from the well-known “Eight Hammers” repertoire of the Beijing Opera. The story was drawn from the 55th and 56th chapters of a popular early Qing dynasty novel, Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan (The Complete Biography of General Yue), by Qian Cai. General Yue was an historical Chinese hero of the Song dynasty (960-1279), who fought against the neighboring Jin dynasty (1115-1234). The Opera consists of several scenes, two of which are represented on the Museum’s Snowflake Warrior Vase. The body of the vase depicts the scene “Fighting in turns” in which Lu Wenlong, a warrior for the Jin camp, fights four generals of the Yue camp. The generals took turns fighting Lu Wenlong, but Lu defeated them all. The warrior in the center is Lu Wenlong, identified by a pair of Chinese spears and two long pheasant tail feathers in his hat. The name Eight Hammers comes from the two huge hammers each of the four generals from General Yue’s camp carry. After the battle, Wang Zuo, a military counselor of General Yue, discovered that Lu Wenlong was not a part of the enemy Jin but was, in fact, the only son of a governor of the General Yue side. When Lu Wenlong was a baby, his true parents committed suicide after being defeated by a Jin leader, who took Lu back to his camp and adopted him. Once Wang Zuo discovered this, he cut off his left arm in a ruse to win the trust of the Jin camp. Having gained access to move freely in enemy’s camp Wang Zuo approached Lu and told him the truth about his life. When Lu learned his true identity, he returned to his original homeland of General Yue’s side. The Opera scene called “Wang Zuo’s broken arm” is not represented on the vase, but the following scene “Story telling by Wang Zuo,” is portrayed on the neck of the vase. The Wang Zuo is shown on the left side of a pavilion pointing at a painting which he used to reveal the truth to Lu Wenlong, who is on the far right of the scene.

China

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