CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

FIG. i. Cat. 108: profile;
lid and handles from above.
After Hubei 1994, cat. 9.
the dragons' bodies are composed of abstract ornaments
with no zoomorphic attributes. The handles
draw the dragon motif out to an even greater level
of complexity: only two heads, staring at each other
with almond-shaped eyes, can be clearly seen.
Each seems to be holding the rim of the cup in its
mouth — or perhaps trying to get at food inside.
In contrast, the surface decoration of the object,
composed of geometric designs rendered in
various contrasting techniques, seems less fluid —
even static. Some of these designs are engraved
and their lines filled with red color against a black
background; others are simply painted on. A few
intertwined motifs are outlined in black against
a background composed of thin, parallel red lines
that intersect at right angles. The remaining designs,
flat and plain, are set in red against black,
or in black against red. The diversity of the design
does not, however, entirely mask a fundamental
coherence: even the most abstract motifs are based
on the dragon pattern.
Clearly, the dou presented a number of technical
challenges to its craftsmen — challenges that
they met with remarkable skill and inventiveness.
Even had lathe turning been available to the artisans
(it was not introduced until the very end of the
fifth century or the beginning of the fourth), the
oval shape of the cup and the lid would have precluded
use of the technique. Though mortise-andtenon
joinery was a common technique in the Chu
lacquerware workshops of the period, and might
have been used to attach separately carved handles
to the cup, the object was carved out of a solid
piece of wood. The limited palette available to lacquer
artisans of the period (essentially, red and
black) was overcome by using a combination of
techniques for ornamentation — engraving, carved
relief, and painting; indeed the craftsmen seem to
have made use of all possible solutions within their
limited range of decorative possibilities. A yellow
lacquer may have been used as well for the cup's
surface decoration; the excavators of the site report
that traces of a gold (or gold-yellow) pigment were
visible on the dou when it was found but vanished
soon afterward. Certainly, the color was available:
yellow lacquer appears in the paintings on the
inner and outer coffins of Marquis Yi. 2 AT
1 Excavated in 1978; published: Hubei 1989,1:368-369,
fig. 227; 2: color pi. 15 and pi. 132; Tokyo 1992, no. 12;
Hubei 1994, no. 9; Tokyo 19983, no. 12.
2 Hubei 1989,1:28.
313 I CHU LACQUERS FROM HUBEI