Lorado Taft: Civil War Generals

A Large collection
of ancient Chinese bronze vessels
(Shang dynasty through Qin dynasty)
is in Chicago now,
and they
remind me of three bronze portraits
of Civil War Generals
now on display at the Chicago Public Library.











These things
felt a bit heavy-handed
to me
when I first saw them

But, they're serving
the same purpose
that those ceremonial
bronze cauldrons
served the early dynasties of China
for over a thousand years:

The celebration of earthly power,
as handed down by the sacred ancestors
from one generation to the next.