Antique Chinese Carved Clay and Wood Stand with Polychrome Decorations. 

Size: 15 1/2 X 15 1/2 X 31 in. 

#5112 . 

Polychrome, broadly defined, is the practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, pottery, and so forth in a variety of colors. In the art world and at auction houses the term is used in conjunction with specific period names, countries, or religious movements to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors throughout recorded history. Although much surviving artworks and architecture from antiquity and the European Middle Ages appear monochrome in the present, the reality is that pre-Renaissance works were abundant with color, and all the Greco-Roman sculptures and Gothic cathedrals that now appear white, beige, or grey were initially painted brightly. The passage of time is not kind to many pigments and substances used to make different colors, which is why so few examples from the distant past appear as they originally did. Polychrome painting and design was not limited only to Western cultures, but was common throughout Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas, although even fewer examples survive in many of these areas due to war, natural disasters, and cultural destruction at the hands of conquering tribes and countries. Some of the most fantastic and long-lived examples can be found on Chinese porcelain, which was invented in the 9th Century AD, and the early Asiatic figural and landscape styles of painting had a profound impact on nearly every other country on Earth thanks to the Silk Road and expansive trade routes.