Flower vase with animal-head handles

This lively vase features the Yuan-dynasty creative reinterpretation of archaic bronzes. Its decoration may be linked directly to the somewhat fanciful reinterpretation of an ancient bronze in a 12th century woodblock-printed catalogue. The imposing entwined dragons on the vessel’s belly as well as the wave patterns on the foot and neck are clearly derived from a Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 B.C.) ritual wine container illustrated in the Xuanhe Bogutu, a catalogue of ancient bronzes in the imperial Song dynasty collection first published in the 12th century. Not satisfied to merely copy this ancient model, the designer of this vessel was intent on creating a “new antique.” Rejecting the squat form and flaring mouth of the archaic model, the artist created an elongated and tapered neck better suited to the vessel’s function as a flower vase. Its two dragon handles are also transformed. In place of the stylized creatures on the Zhou vessel, the closest parallels to these handles are nomadic designs seen on metalwork from the Mongol Yuan dynasty.