NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DYNASTIES, EARLY 6TH CENTURY AD

As Nicole De Bisscop notes in Chinese Jade and Scroll Paintings from the Dongxi Collection, Brussels, 1995, p. 74, the powerfully rendered winged dragon on this extremely rare fitting radiates strength which is accentuated by the openwork C-shaped curl suggestive of a surging wave. In both design and dynamism, the dragon recalls striding gilt-bronze figures of dragons dating to the Northern Wei period, such as the two included in the exhibition Art of the Six Dynasties, Centuries of Change and Innovation, China House Gallery/China Institute in America, New York, 29 October 1975 – 1 February 1976, nos. 37 (collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd) and 38 (The Art Museum, Princeton University).