Page 197 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

Fanglei are amongst the rarest, most imposing, and most majestic of Chinese archaic bronzes.
The largest fanglei known appears to be the Min fanglei (88 cm. high), sold privately through
Christie’s New York in March 2014, and now kept in the Hunan Provincial Museum. See ‘Min’ Fanglei
and Selected Bronze Vessels Unearthed from Hunan, Shanghai, 2015, no. 1. According to research by
Xiang Taochu of the Hunan University and Wu Xiaoyan of the Hunan Provincial Museum, there are
only 45 examples of Shang and Western Zhou fanglei, the majority of which are in major museums
around the world. See Wenwu, 2016, no. 2, p. 58 and Appendix 1.
Shang and Western Zhou fanglei can be divided into three groups based on the arrangement of their
decoration. The frst type has whorl-cast bosses centered by relief animal masks and loop handles
around the shoulder, such as an early Yinxu example without a cover found in Huayuanzhuang Dongdi
M54, illustrated in Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, p. 165; and an early
Western Zhou example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wu Xiaoyan and Xiang Taochu, op.
cit., p. 59, fg. 6. The second type has two narrow friezes of decoration on the shoulder and upper
body and a band of taotie-flled blades pendent around the lower body, such as the fanglei formerly
in the Sze Yuan Tang Collection, ofered at Christie’s New York, 16 Sep 2010, lot 838; one with a Ya
Yi clan sign, thought to have come from a royal Shang tomb at Xibeigang, Anyang, now in the Okada
Museum of Art, Hakone, illustrated by Sueji Umehara in Nihon shucho shina kodo seika (Selected
Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan), vol. 1, Osaka, 1959, no. 6; and another
example in the Nezu Museum, illustrated ibid, no. 13. It is interesting to note that the Nezu example
has taotie masks cast upright on its cover, whereas most of the taotie motifs cast on covers are
inverted, as seen on the Fujita fanglei.
The third and most elaborate type has multiple friezes of kui dragons and taotie fully embellishing
the body, such as the present vessel. Other known examples include two very similar fanglei, one
in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto, illustrated in Sen-oku Hakko: Chugoku kodoki hen, Kyoto, 2002,
p. 97, no. 114, and the other in the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in the Nezu Museum, Kanzo In
Shu no seidoki, Tokyo, 2009, p. 33, no.12; one without a cover in the Shanghai Museum, published
extensively, including by Wen Fong, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, 1980, no. 27; one with a Ya Chou clan sign in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in
Zhongguo meishu quanji: gongyi meishu 4, Beijing, 1987, no. 126; and a Western Zhou example in the
St. Louis Art Museum, illustrated by S. D. Owyoung in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art
Museum, St. Louis, 1997, no. 24.

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