Blade Above the Clouds

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This copper-toned armoured figure is a long-bearded warrior standing on a base of rolling clouds. His brows are heavy and his glare fierce, the beard falling to his belly; he wears close-worked scale armour with a coiled dragon in relief on the breastplate, a tight belt, a war skirt and greaves. In his right hand he carries a long-shafted broad blade point-down, its wide edge engraved with a swimming dragon, the tip nearly reaching the base; his left hand lifts before his chest with fingers half-curled, as if about to give an order. Two long sashes loop from his shoulders into great arcs above his head and trail down his sides onto the clouds. Stern yet unhurried, with all its movement in beard and ribbons, it suits a hall, a club room or one side of an entrance, carrying its own field of authority.