Figural Group: Shoulao, God of Longevity, Cane

This is a cane which is attached to the Chinese rootwood carving of Shoulao, the god of longevity. Shoulao is portrayed as a venerable elder with many portrayals having him hold the "fruit of fabulous tree," a plant which blossoms and bears fruit every six thousand years. In his multi-part display, Shoulao is accompanied by a crane and a deer, both animals that symbolize longevity. Rootwood designed works were appealing to scholars because of their irregular shapes, enabling the viewer to form various interpretations on what the resulting carved images could be. Sculptures and furniture were also obtained by Chinese collectors as early as the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Lacquerware was typically produced in government-sponsored workshops, though this was not always the case. In times of economic prosperity, the commercial workshops of southern China, particularly the southeastern provinces of the Song and Yuan periods (13th-14th century) and the late Ming era (1368-1644), were innovative in their approaches to creating lacquer items. Lacquer items from the Qing palace workshops were, at first, carved by craftsmen capable of overcoming the difficulties of lacquer carving due to their experience carving bamboo and ivory. However, the rapid political and economic decline of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) following the reign of Qianlong (1735-1796) resulted in the closing down of many palace workshops, and the lacquer items made afterwards were fewer and had diminished in quality.

Dursum, Brian A. et al. China’s Last Empire: The Art and Culture of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911. Coral Gables: Lowe Art Museum, 2014.

Hutt, Julia. Understanding Far Eastern Art: A Complete Guide to the Arts of China, Japan and Korea - Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, Prints, Lacquer, Textiles and Metalwork. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987.

Spurlock Museum of World Cultures. Sculpted Stories: Selected Works from the Fred Freund Collection. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d.

Watt, James C. Y., and Barbara Brennan Ford. East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.