This composition is representative of the intellectual arrangements produced during the early years of the Ming Dynasty. There are as many as ten different flowers or materials used, an obvious metaphor for the concept of "wholeness" or "perfection" represented by the character for tile number ten. If one considers the body of this arrangement as a semi-circles the radius of the circle here is equivalent to the height of the vase, and the branches thrust both upward and downward. Soft and hard alternate in a pattern which, while profuse, is not without its logic. A sprig of reel flower reaches for the distant sky above, studded by white, starlike petals, and void and substance are balanced perfectly in an atmosphere of hushed beauty.
The flowers in this piece are of larger proportion than those of the preceding one, more massive and more densely packed. The composition is built around the gladiola, with the leave radiating outward in four directions. Flower colors are split among red and green, black and white, and branches thrust both upward and downward, altering between the pliant and the unyielding, the hollow and the solid. Above, the plum blossoms wink and twinkle in flawless imitation of a star-studded sky.
Hanging flower arrangements were already much in vogue as early as the Five Dynasties era. This composition is a downscaled version of the Sung Dynasty intellectual flowers, There are only three flowers, a large one on the fight and two on the left to generate a sense of symmetry and soften the immpression of sharpness and rigidity created by the vessel handle. A series of leaves rises/n succession from the bronze vessel hangs suspended in open space from a cord extended from above to create alight, floating, ethereal sensation.
[preface] [
styles] [religious] [palace]
[literati] [folk]
[9 principles] [significance]
[prsveration] [vessels]
[appreciatin]
[Pavilion of Taiwan,
R.O.C] [Cultures]
[Council For Cultural
Affairs]