Page 18 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

With its successful combination of elegant proportions, strong shape and fne
execution of details, this vessel represents the most refned bronze casting
tradition of the late Shang period. A similar fangyi, formerly in the collection of
Arthur M. Sackler, and now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is
illustrated by Max Loehr in Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, New York, 1968,
pp. 90-91, no. 37, in which the author notes “I know of no other Fang I to match
this exquisite specimen in proportions, design, and refned technique.” The
present fangyi may be considered to be of similar quality as the Metropolitan
Museum of Art fangyi.
Fangyi appear to have been one of the most prized of ritual vessels, as they
have been found in fewer and more sumptuous tombs than more common
shapes such as gu, jue, and ding. The term fangyi is a traditional attribution
made by Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) scholars. Fang literally means square
and refers to the faceted form. Yi is a general term for ritual vessels. Although
current scholarship classifes fangyi as wine vessels, ancient scholars as well
as some prominent modern scholars such as Chen Mengjia and Bernhard
Kalgren believed that fangyi are food vessels: see C. Deydier, Understanding
Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Their Importance in Chinese Culture, Their Shapes,
Functions and Motifs, 2015, p. 34.
For a full discussion of the evolution of the fangyi, see C. Deydier, ibid, p. 37. The
author notes that fangyi were made of pottery in the Neolithic period and were
also made of white marble in the Shang dynasty. Bronze fangyi frst appeared
at the beginning of the Yinxu period (13th-11th century BC) or perhaps
during the transitional phase between the end of the Erligang period and the
beginning of the Yinxu period, circa 14th century BC, and disappeared at the
beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty.
The decoration on all fangyi is arranged in registers, and typically feature with
a large taotie mask on the body, small dragons or birds on the foot and above
the mask, and either a large taotie repeated on the cover or, in at least one
instance, a bird. See R.L. d’Argencé, The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art,
Japan, 1973, no. 2, for the latter. In some instances the decoration is fat-cast or
the decorative motifs are flled with leiwen scrolls.
A fangyi of very similar form and decoration, but with a band of bird motifs
below the mouth rim, from the Ernest Erickson Collection, is illustrated
by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,
Washington D.C., 1987, p. 435, fg. 77.15. Another similar fangyi in the
Hakutsuru Art Museum, Kobe, is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji:
Shang 4 (Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes: Shang 4), vol. 4, Beijing,
1998, no. 73. Another comparable fangyi, formerly in the collections of Gladys
Lloyd Robinson and the British Rail Pension Fund, was sold at Christie’s New
York, 24 March 2004, lot 106.

(another view)

16