Saying Goodbye to the Year of the Dragon

Saying Goodbye to the Year of the Dragon

From the Arts of Asia Department

29/01/2025     General News, Latest News

The year of the dragon was an eventful one at Azca, seeing our doors opening for the first time and each department’s inaugural sales. Conveniently, coming into being in the year of the dragon has in recent times become something auspicious in countries that use the Chinese zodiac! The dragon’s associations of success and good luck have led to beliefs that those born in the zodiac year will also carry those attributes, and as a result birth rates have been recorded to spike at this point in the lunar calendar.

 

 

Representations of dragons in Chinese art have been found since the neolithic period, and by the Han dynasty were conventionally understood as divine entities which dwelt between sea and sky. Often depictions would see dragons in competitive pursuit of flaming pearls, thought to symbolise wisdom, amongst the clouds. Uniformly, dragons carry positive connotations of strength and prosperity, leading to their consistent use as symbols of imperial power. Their importance as a symbol for the Chinese emperor meant that the nuances of their anatomical depictions came to have significance, where five-clawed dragons were reserved for the emperor himself, while princes could only display dragons with four.

 

 

The ubiquity of dragons in the East Asian artistic vocabulary can be demonstrated by its spread west with migration. For example, although these 19th century silver ewers (from Azca's June 2024 Islamic Art sale) do not originate from China, rather from the Himalayan plateau, their use of the ‘long’ dragon motif serves as an important reminder of cultural exchange between Central and Eastern Asian communities. The serpentine bodies of the dragons form handles, as their mouths tightly grip to the neck of the vessels, in a style specifically reminiscent of Chinese and Tibetan depictions. This creates a contrast with the nastal’iq calligraphic inscriptions and trellis motifs to the body, which represent strong southern Asian Islamic influence. This kind of object gives fascinating insight into the ways in which vastly differing cultures can become intertwined in art.

 

 

Arguably, this serpentine depiction is also fitting for celebrating the shift from the year of the dragon to the upcoming year of the snake. Due to their similar forms, dragons and snakes have often been commonly associated- indeed snakes are sometimes called ‘the little dragon’ as a result. Some traditional Chinese associations of the snake symbolically are mysteriousness and intelligence, but also good fortune and longevity.

We hope to carry the latter two especially into the new year at Azca!

 

Images:

Detail from Lot 1, A Chinese Embroidered Wedding 'Dragon' Red Silk Robe, Qing Dynasty, to be included in Azca's upcoming March 31st sale, 'Pursuing Perfection: the Perino Collection'

Lot 129, A Pair of Silver Ewers with Nasta'Liq Calligraphy and Dragon Handles, Himalayan Plateau, 19th Century, sold for £1476 in Azca's June 2024 sale, 'Arts of India and the Islamic Lands'