Formal Perspective
The Chinese art-piece, which will be discussed in this paper, is the Spouted Ritual Water Vessel from the 7th-6th century B.C. (IMG_4028.JPG). The piece’s utilitarian purpose is concerned with its ability to hold liquids. It features a rather elongated spout and richly decorated handle and supporting legs.
The latter resemble of what could have been the legs of some mythical animal. The vessel’s outer sides also feature a fair amount of decorative elements. In its turn, this implies that there is indeed a good rationale to think of this particular art-piece, as such that has been greatly treasured by the affiliates of the concerned historical period in China. The fact that, as it can be seen on the picture, there are no signs of any visible wear on this water vessel, suggests that it has been used on rare occasions.
Technical perspective
Given the actual material, out of which the Spouted Ritual Water Vessel was made (bronze), we can well assume that, in terms of a technological development, the ancient Chinese were not falling behind ancient Greeks, for example. Apparently, in order to be able to produce bronze, people are supposed to possess a certain awareness of what happens when copper is being alloyed with tin.
This, however, can only be the case with those who have evolved to the point of being able to maintain a civilization of their own. The validity of this statement can also be illustrated in regards to the fact that, as the image of the Spouted Ritual Water Vessel points out too, its creators thoroughly mastered the technology of a lost-wax casting.
In essence, this technology is being concerned with artists making a wax-mold of whatever the object that they intend to produce, allowing a gypsum-cast to form around it, and filling the obtained cast with molten bronze. It is understood, of course, that the earlier mentioned technology implies that its affiliates, at the time of an ancient antiquity, were utterly industrious people, fully capable of remaining on the path of progress.
Social perspective
The Spouted Ritual Water Vessel has been mainly used for a variety of ritual purposes, such as symbolizing the fluidity of one’s life, during the course of religious ceremonies. The item’s rich ornamentation validates the legitimacy of this suggestion, as it implies the vessel’s high value, which in turn sheds doubts on the idea that the concerned art-piece could have been used as an ordinary household article.
The earlier provided suggestion presupposes that it was primarily the members of the China’s ruling class/nobility, for whom the Spouted Ritual Water Vessel was meant to serve initially. This is because the item’s rich decorations imply that, along with having been considered ‘sacred’, it has also been deemed utterly expensive.
Given the fact that there can be only a few doubts, in regards to the vessel’s significance, as a ritual item, we can well assume that it was primarily during the time of a religious worshiping that this art-piece used to be put in a practical use.
The vessel’s another use could have been concerned with helping diseased people to feel thoroughly ‘accommodated’ in the afterlife. For this purpose, the item would have been placed in the coffin along with the diseased individual. The soundness of this statement can be shown, in regards to how the ancient Chinese used to reflect upon the meaning of death.
