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= Guang Edit Outline=

Decor
The Guang is distinguishable by its zoomorphic lid and handle, and its one-footed base. The animal figure at the front of the lid is often a tiger or dragon, while the sculpted handle ranges in decoration from fantastic creatures like dragons to real animals such as rams, elephants, and even the beaks of birds. Some guang lids also depict animals-- typically birds-- at the back of the vessel facing or transitioning into the handle. The animals on the lid and handle are presented "in the round".

The surface of the vessel is decorated in low- to mid-relief. This relief may depict the bodies belonging to the creatures rendered on the lid or other complete animal figures. It's not uncommon for one animal to transition directly into another. The lower sections of the guang are also often divided into registers and quadrants by flanges. This flange can be the central divider of a taotie, a mask-like creature motif with curving horns a dragon-like body stretching out to its sides. Other surface embellishments include geometric background shapes such as the squared-spiral, the lei-wen. These were used to fill in empty space between more representational imagery and sometimes as smaller detail on those images.

Casting
Early Chinese bronze vessels were cast using the piece-mold process. This process involved the artist forming the mold in pieces from clay, then connecting them to make one overall vessel form. With this method, the decoration on a vessel's surface had to be incised into the clay in reverse and negative. This means that images that would be raised on the surface of the metal would have to become depressions in the clay mold. The void inside the mold is then filled with molten metal, creating the positive. In contrast, the process of lost-wax casting allows an artisan to create a wax model of the desired object. The molten metal takes the place of the wax when cast. Frequently it was necessary in the casting of large vessels to cast the main portion, include it in the construction of another mold, and then cast protrusions-- such as the guang's handle-- onto that piece.