Video: How ivory masterpieces were created: puzzle balls, openwork ships and other delights of Chinese masters
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Currently, ivory carving and trade in such products are almost not practiced all over the world. Unfortunately, elephants, these beautiful animals, are on the verge of extinction, and hunting for them is prohibited almost everywhere. Let us admire the same unique masterpieces that were once created by the hands of Chinese masters. Incredible, painstaking work …
In ancient times, both elephants and rhinos were found in abundance in the river valleys in the Middle Kingdom. A variety of products were made from the tusks and horns of these animals - tools and weapons, objects of worship and everyday life, ornaments.
With the expansion of trade with the countries of South Asia and Africa, from where ivory was also imported, the art of bone carving in China received even greater development.
Over time, two main schools of ivory carving were formed in China - Peking and Canton (Guangzhou), which practiced different techniques for working with bone.
Beijing School of Ivory Carving
The Beijing school is distinguished by its laconic form and more restrained decor. The carvers tried to reveal and emphasize the beauty of the material used and its texture. For this product (mainly, these were figures of people), they were carefully polished, if necessary, they were tinted to make them more decorative.
Cantonese Ivory Carving School
Cantonese carvers (Guangzhou was formerly called Canton) mainly focused on the complexity of carving, trying to display even the smallest details in their products. They pre-bleached ivory, achieving a radiant whiteness. The products of the masters of this school amaze with their beauty and technique of execution …
A favorite theme is openwork boats:
"Puzzle Balls" (Guangzhou)
The multi-layer openwork balls, which they learned how to make, brought special fame all over the world to the Guangzhou craftsmen. From a single piece of bone, using the simplest set of tools, they cut out several hollow balls, placed one inside the other, like nesting dolls. Moreover, each of these balls could freely rotate inside independently of the others. And, besides, all the balls were decorated with the finest ornate carvings.
A work of incredible complexity that requires great patience and impeccable accuracy … And only the most experienced craftsmen, whose carving skills were brought to perfection, took on it.
The very first "puzzle balls" consisted of only two balls, gradually the master carvers managed to bring their number to seven. And in 1915, a Chinese carver impressed visitors to the Panama International Fair with a ball he carved containing as many as 25 openwork balls. But it turned out that this is not the limit. In 1977, his son, Weng Rongbiao, broke this record by making a ball, inside which 42 openwork balls freely rotated! The diameter of the ball was 15 centimeters, while the thickness of the smallest inner ball did not exceed the thickness of the paper sheet.
Speaking about the skill of Chinese carvers, one cannot fail to mention one more amazing work:
In 1974, a monumental sculpture called the Chengdu-Kunming Railway was carved in Beijing, which took eight elephant tusks to make. Its length is 1.8 meters, its height is 1.1 meters, and its weight is over 300 kg.98 craftsmen have been working on this masterpiece for over two years. Subsequently, this sculpture was presented as a gift to the UN General Assembly.
Although ivory is almost never used in China today, Beijing and Guangzhou are still famous centers of bone carving. Only now the bone carvers are using a different material for their work - the tubular tibia of camels and oxen (tarsus). But even these works of theirs still amaze with their jewelry technique and perfection. This is China …
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