The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animal heads in Yuanmingyuan was originally part of the fountain outside Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. It was a red bronze statue made during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In 1860, the British and French forces invaded China and burned the Old Summer Palace, and the bronze statues of animal heads began to be lost overseas.
As of 2012, the bronze statues of cow heads, monkey heads, tiger heads, pig heads, and horse heads have returned to China and are collected in the Poly Art Museum; on April 26, 2013, the French Pinault family in Beijing Announced that it would donate to China free of charge the bronze rat heads and rabbit heads from the twelve major water paintings of the Yuanmingyuan that were lost overseas. The rat heads and rabbit heads donated this time are two of the twelve zodiac bronze statues lost in the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. At present, eight of the twelve animal heads of the twelve zodiac animals among the twelve major water paintings in the Old Summer Palace have been returned to China. Among them, the dragon head is currently well preserved in Taiwan, but the whereabouts of the snake, chicken, dog, and sheep heads are unknown.
History
The Haiyan Hall, a historic site in the Old Summer Palace, was built in 1759 (the 24th year of Qianlong's reign). The word "Haiyan" means "the river is clear and the sea is peaceful, the country is peaceful and the people are safe". "Wenyuan Yinghua" Tang Zhengxi's "The King of Japan and China": "The river is clear and the sea is Yan, the time is harmonious and the year is prosperous" River, Yellow River; Yan, calm. "Heqing Haiyan" is also called "Haiyan Heqing", which means that the water flow of the Yellow River is clear and the sea is calm. This term is used to describe peace in the world and has an auspicious connotation of praising world peace. This is also where the name of the ornamental and practical building "Haiyan Hall" in the Yuanmingyuan, the Chinese royal garden, comes from. The essence of this architectural complex - the twelve zodiac bronze statues tell the time with water, which is world-famous.
The animal head was designed by Castiglione, a Jesuit priest stationed in China. He used the twelve zodiac signs of the animal head and human body to represent the twenty-four hours of the day. Each bronze statue takes turns to spray water, which is a spectacle. In 1860, the animal heads of the twelve zodiac animals were plundered by the British and French forces and then scattered around the world. Among them, the bronze statues of the cow, monkey, tiger and pig heads have been returned to China and are collected in the Poly Art Museum; the bronze statue of the horse head was purchased by Macau businessman Stanley Ho in 2007. After being purchased, they were donated to the country; the rat and rabbit heads were donated to China free of charge by the French Pinault family and were included in the National Museum; as of May 2013, according to reliable information, the dragon head was collected in Taiwan; the snake head, chicken head, dog head, and sheep head The whereabouts are unknown.
In 1860, the British and French allied forces burned down the Old Summer Palace, and the twelve zodiac bronze statues in the Old Summer Palace were lost overseas. As many as one million pieces of Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas. Among all well-known foreign museums, there are more than 1.6 million Chinese cultural relics in collections. Including other Chinese cultural relics in private collections, the total number of Chinese cultural relics scattered overseas is more than 17 million, which is a number that greatly exceeds that of domestic museums in China. and private collections.
Designer
The bronze statue of the animal head was cast during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It was designed by Italian Castiglione, a palace Western painter, supervised by Frenchman Chiang Youren, and produced by palace craftsmen.
At first Castiglione wanted to build a nude female sculpture with Western characteristics, but Emperor Qianlong felt that this was against Chinese ethics and morals, so he ordered a redesign. So Castiglione took into account Chinese folk culture and replaced the human body sculptures commonly used in Western fountain designs with seated figures of the twelve zodiac animals.
Features
The body of the zodiac bronze statue is shaped like a stone carving wearing a robe, and the head is shaped in a realistic style. The casting is fine, and the wrinkles and down on the animal head are all subtle. Clear and lifelike. The material used to cast the animal head was red copper refined by the Qing Dynasty at that time. It has a deep color on the outside and a polished interior. It has lasted for hundreds of years without rusting, which is a unique feat. According to research, the bronze statues of the twelve zodiac animals were arranged in a figure-eight shape on both sides of a pool in front of Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. They were called "hydraulic clocks" by people at the time. Every day, the twelve zodiac bronze statues will spray water in turn, representing different times of the day. At noon, the twelve statues will spray water at the same time. The Haiyantang Twelve Zodiac Fountain is a fountain clock designed according to the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. Every hour, the zodiac clock belonging to that hour will automatically spray water. At twelve o'clock at noon, the twelve zodiac signs spray water at the same time, and the design is extremely exquisite. The main building of Haiyan Hall faces west, with eleven rooms at the top and bottom. There are stacked fountains on the left and right of the door. There is a large fountain under the steps. On the left and right of the pool, there are bronze statues of human bodies and animal heads of the twelve zodiac animals arranged in an "eight" shape. At twelve hours every day and night, the twelve zodiac signs take turns spraying water, commonly known as the "water clock".
The portraits of the Twelve Lives were originally placed on the 12 stone platforms on the north and south sides of the fan-shaped pool fountain in front of Haiyan Hall in the Western Tower of Yuanmingyuan. On the south bank are the rat, tiger, dragon, horse, monkey, and dog; on the north bank are the ox, the rabbit, the snake, the sheep, the rooster, and the pig. These portraits all have animal heads and human bodies. The head is made of copper, and the body is made of stone. The hollow is connected to a water spray pipe. Every other hour (two hours), the portrait representing that hour will spray water from its mouth; at noon, ten The two portraits have fountains gushing out of their mouths at the same time, creating a spectacle. These bronze zodiac statues are 50 centimeters high and are exquisitely carved. They are the finest bronzes of the Qing Dynasty.