Thanks to the ACM curator Clement Onn, we had an amazing two hours visiting the Asian Civilizations Museum! What was your favorite object that you saw during our visit?

Mounted incense burner. Porcelain: China, Jingdezhen, around 1700. Gilded bronze mounts: France, mid 18th century. Asian Civilization Museum. Photo taken by Audrelia Lim.

Reflection

One thing that caught my attention was the horse that is being portrayed in this work is seated elegantly on a bench. The bright and warm colors of red and what it seems to be ivory or emerald green complements the overall work quite nicely. Furthermore, the use of bright colors was used in a way that it still appeal to the viewers’ eyes and less of an eye sore probably because of the tone the artists have chosen on their colors while painting this ceramic.

I love how the gilded bronze mounts is painted as motifs on the plain green bench and red pottery on the horse. It just helps to make this work stand out even more also allowing this work to appear more three dimensional in an elaborated way. Furthermore, the lines used to create for the motifs are very wavy especially the ones at the edge of the bench as they give a nice structure and decoration to it. The bench also provides a firm and well balance support for the horse that is carrying a pottery on its back . By well balance, it means that the work is reasonably firm and steady also in terms of composition where the weight between the subject matter and objects is evenly distributed, making it easy on the viewers’ eyes.

Overall, the look of this whole object gives me a very sophisticated and elegant feeling because of the bronze mounts, decorations and how the horse  is posing elegantly between the two objects.

Moreover, another reason why this is my favorite object is because of how the use of two different materials could make the work more dynamic and having a sense of variety  in terms of material and decorations. According to the articles I have read, scholars would say that the bronze material was from France because the Europeans were exposed to cultural exchanging relationship and trading relationship with China.  It is very nice and interesting to see how two different cultures could come together and bring out a piece of work that always look poised and polished with some sense of sophistication.