Page 61 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

Although the taotie mask was the decorative motif most frequently encountered on bronze ritual
vessels from the Shang dynasty, other motifs were popular as well, including long- and short-tailed
birds, kui dragons, and even snakes. Apart from those “representational” motifs, a variety of abstract,
non-representational, geometric motifs also appear on Shang bronzes, from interlocking T-forms T to
zig-zag, or chevron, patterns and diamond-and-boss patterns, to yet others. Long forgotten, the meaning
of such decorative schemes, if any, has been lost to the mists of time for both representational and
geometric types—including that of the vertical ribs on the present gui vessels—though speculation about
their meanings abounds. Many such motifs continued into the Western Zhou, the “representational”
motifs often showing a distinct evolution, the abstract motifs generally remaining more traditional and
conservative, even if presented in slightly new combinations and contexts.

Decoration of vertical ribs—occasionally also termed, or “pleats”, in Chinese—appeared only at the very
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end of the Shang, gaining popularity during the Western Zhou. Arguably the earliest Early Western Zhou
vessel with a mature presentation of ribbed décor is the Kang Hou Gui, formerly in the collection of Neill
Malcolm (1869–1953), then of his son, Dugald Malcolm (1917–2000), and now in British Museum, London
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(1977.404.1). Appearing around the belly of the Kang Hou Gui, the vertical ribs constitute the principal
decorative motif; even so, the ribs are not used alone, as in the present vessels, but, in typical Early Western
Zhou fashion, appear in concert with such subsidiary motifs as the whirligig bosses that alternate with
fower-like motifs in the bands encircling the neck and footring (as Robert W. Bagley has termed those
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design elements, though Chinese typically refer to those elements as “fre and four-petal eye motifs”, as
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noted by Chen Peifen, or occasionally as “fre and four-leaf motifs”). Although this arrangement follows
the decorative pattern established at the end of the Shang, the Kang Hou Gui acquires stateliness and
monumentality by altering the vessel’s proportions, substantially increasing the size of its handles, and
greatly expanding the height, form, and defnition of its footring. Of course, decoration with vertical
ribs was not limited to gui vessels; in fact, Western Zhou vessels in functional types other than the gui
occasionally also incorporated bands of vertical ribs into their decorative schemes, as evinced by the you
wine vessel and associated, but independently cast, socle in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
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of Art, New York (24.72.2a–c) and by the Mu Xin Zun wine vessel—formerly in the collection of Julius
Eberhardt (of Vienna, Austria) and, before that, in the collection of H.E. A.J. Argyropoulos (of Athens,
Greece)—which features a narrow band of vertical ribs around its midsection. Following the lead of
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contemporaneous bronze vessels, even a few late Shang and Early Western Zhou ceramics incorporated
vertical ribs into their decorative schemes, as witnessed by the gray earthenware zun wine vessel in New
York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (50.61.5), underscoring the close relationship between ceramics and
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bronzes during China’s Great Bronze Age (c. 1700 BC–AD 220).
The earliest Western Zhou socled gui vessels to incorporate vertical ribs into their decorative schemes
tend to feature those ribs in a horizontally set, rectangular panel on each face of the square base, rather
than in a decorative register on the bowl itself, as seen in the Shanghai Museum’s Jia Gui, whose bowl
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sports a diamond-and-boss pattern, or in the large, four-handled gui in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum in
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Kobe, Japan, whose bowl also sports a diamond-and-boss pattern. In fact, with socled gui vessels, many
new, Zhou-dynasty design elements made their frst appearance on the socle and then gradually came to
be featured in the decorative scheme on the bowl.
饕餮紋雖是商代青銅禮器最常用的裝飾題材，但短 康侯簋的紋樣雖不脫商末格局，但卻一改器形比例，
尾或長尾鳥紋、夔紋甚或蛇紋等亦相當流行。除了 除了雙耳明顯放大，連圈足的高度、樣式和清晰度亦
這些「具象」紋飾，商代青銅器更結合了形形色色的 大大提升，觀之益顯軒昂挺拔。當然，直棱紋並非簋
寫意、非具象的幾何圖案，從T形勾連紋乃至曲折雷 的專屬紋樣；事實上，就簋以外的其他西周實用器物
紋、方格乳釘雷紋等，不一而足。無論是具象或幾何 而言，直棱紋在紋樣組合中偶有出現，就此有二例可
紋樣 (如本拍品所示的直棱紋)，這些裝飾圖案即便當 資參考：其一是紐約大都會藝術博物館藏帶座卣
初另有所指，如今俱已淹沒在重重的歷史迷霧之中， (酒器)，其座子為單獨鑄造 (館藏號24.72.2a–c)； 10 (above)
而相關的推考臆測仍眾說紛紜、莫衷一是。西周襲用 其二是奧地利維也納艾伯哈特 (Julius Eberhardt) 舊藏 Fig. 3 Da Shi Cuo gui (two views), mid-Western Zhou
了許多前朝的紋飾題材，「具象」者有明顯的演變蛻 母辛尊 (酒器)，艾氏之前經手的藏家為希臘雅典的阿 dynasty, 10th-9th century BC. The Shanghai Museum
Collection. After Chen Peifen, Xia Shang Zhou qingtongqi
化，而抽象紋飾的搭配與呈現方式雖偶有新意，但總 格洛普 (H.E. A.J. Argyropoulos)，此尊的器身中段便是
yanjiu (Study of Xia, Shang and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 5,
的來說仍流於傳統和保守。 以一道細窄直棱紋為飾。 11 在商末和西周早期陶瓷之 Shanghai, 2004, pp. 442-44, no. 377.
中，也有一小批作品以當時的青銅器為藍本，在裝飾 圖三 西周中期 大師虘簋 上海博物館藏
直棱紋 (或名「褶紋」) 出現於商代末年，西周年間 圖案中糅合了直棱紋，紐約大都會藝術博物館藏灰陶
日益流行。 6 西周早期飾以直棱紋且表現手法成熟 尊 (館藏號50.61.5) 便是一例， 12 堪可印證中國青銅時
的作品，年代最早的應是康侯簋，此器出自麥奈爾 代 (約公元前1700年至公元220年) 的陶瓷與青銅器之間
(Neill Malcolm，1869至1953年) 舊藏，後傳予其子麥 密不可分的關係。
杜格 (Dugald Malcolm，1917至2000年)，現已入藏倫敦
大英博物館 (館藏號1977.404.1)。 7 康侯簋的直棱紋用 西周帶座簋的直棱紋元素，最初用於裝飾方座每個立
於裝飾器腹的主紋飾帶，但跟本拍品一樣，其直棱紋 面上的水平長方開光，而非器腹的紋飾帶，就此可參
並非單獨呈現，而是依循西周早期的慣例，用其他的 考二例：其一是上海博物館藏甲簋，其腹飾方格乳釘
次要題材陪襯，如環繞器頸和圈足的紋飾帶，貝格禮 雷紋； 13 其二是日本神戶市白鶴美術館藏四耳大簋，
(Robert W. Bagley) 稱之為「漩渦狀凸飾，間以花狀紋 其腹亦飾方格乳釘雷紋。 14 實際上，就帶座簋而言，
飾」， 8 而常見的中文名稱則是陳佩芬所用的「火紋 周代不少創新的紋樣皆先用於裝飾座子，爾後始逐漸
與四瓣目紋」， 9 此外又名「火紋與四葉紋」。 轉化為器腹的紋飾。
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