Oriental rugs, antique and modern . re still copied during the early Kang-hi period, butthere was a freer use of colour and a more decorative of the figures are still geometric. Frets are conspicuous inthe fields of large numbers of these pieces. The dragon also is a favour-ite motive; but in the scrolls that represent the legs and bifurcatedtail, and in the conventionalised head, the resemblance to the mythi-cal monster is almost lost. Sometimes two or more of these consti-tute a medallion in the centre of the field, in which others are groupedwith regularity; while similar
Oriental rugs, antique and modern . re still copied during the early Kang-hi period, butthere was a freer use of colour and a more decorative of the figures are still geometric. Frets are conspicuous inthe fields of large numbers of these pieces. The dragon also is a favour-ite motive; but in the scrolls that represent the legs and bifurcatedtail, and in the conventionalised head, the resemblance to the mythi-cal monster is almost lost. Sometimes two or more of these consti-tute a medallion in the centre of the field, in which others are groupedwith regularity; while similar forms occupy the corners. Some ofthe rugs in which the fields are covered with sundry objects, asscrolls, vases, altar pieces, and sacred plants, also belong to thisperiod. The borders of these and late Kang-hi pieces have frequentlyan outer edging of brown and a single border stripe with swastika-fret. In a few pieces, the stripe has a well-balanced scroll which hasbeen developed from designs of conventionalised dragons and frets. Plate 61. Turkoman Saddlebags CHINESE RUGS 269 that appear in the central medallion and in the corners of the , however, there is an inner stripe with the key colour scheme of the late Ming, including the golden brownsand deep blues, is largely employed in rugs of this period. The same influences that resulted during the late Kang-hiperiod in the remarkable development of decorative art as appliedto porcelains, produced a corresponding effect in the rugs woven atthe same time. Manchurian ideas and taste gave renewed spiritto earlier Chinese style. The fields were not infrequently coveredwith sub-patterns of fret work, on which medallions appeared moreprominently. The geometric figures were largely supplanted byfoliate forms. Even when the central medallions and corner figuresare of frets or stiffly conventionalised dragons, the fields are oftencovered with delicate scroll or foliate sub-patterns that supportfloral forms
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1922
