Large Bronze Dragon Incense Burner 1882 - 1883

Curator: So, we're looking at an image of a bronze incense burner, a sculpture depicting a dragon, created sometime between 1882 and 1883. The Met has it. Pretty grand piece of Asian-inspired art. What leaps out at you? Editor: Wow, it’s got a weighty presence, even just as an image. All those intricate scales...it makes you wonder how the heck they pulled that off! You can almost smell the exotic incense clinging to its surface. But also it's kinda frozen in time. The smoke's long gone. Curator: It's more than just surface decoration though. Consider that, during this period, so-called Orientalism heavily influenced Western art. Works like these served as conduits for fantasies and assumptions about the East. Editor: Hmmm, so kind of like borrowing thunder from another culture? A fascination tinged with… let’s just say ignorance? You know, I can see that in the stiff way the dragon’s posed; it feels like an interpretation, a story told second-hand. But hey, you can still appreciate the skill it took to create this sculpture in the first place. Curator: Exactly. While cultural exchange occurred, it wasn't always on equal footing. Images like this perpetuated a very specific, often skewed, vision. Now think about the wealthy collectors who commissioned these pieces and how they flaunted the perceived luxury and mysticism from distant cultures, a narrative deeply enmeshed in unequal power dynamics. Editor: It is definitely a powerful symbol, isn't it? I imagine smoke curling out, like thoughts escaping. And if you were going to put smoke, the most impalpable ethereal kind of matter, you might imagine it in connection with your fiercest symbol... a dragon! So yeah, the object makes its way and eventually all that remains is the impression of the image. So evocative. Curator: Absolutely. And how this visual shorthand continues shaping and influencing our perceptions, even today. What do you make of it overall, then? Editor: It still inspires awe, definitely. A kind of "Oh, look what they made!" feeling, although with a layer of introspection too, because, as you suggest, it asks important questions. How does that thing inform this day and age? You've opened a door for seeing with nuance... the sculpture's legacy, a story of its own.