Page 220 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

The Fujita gong is exceptional in its naturalistic sculptural quality, as well as being fully embellished
with fantastic animals. Such naturalism can rarely be found in early Chinese bronze art, which is
characterized by an overriding interest in invented motifs and articulated designs. The Fujita gong
in contrast captures various anatomical features of a ram, such as the undecorated naturalistic
head, which features a slightly up-turned muzzle with a pair of ‘comma’-shaped nostrils, prominent
cheekbones, eyes with elongated orbits, leaf-shaped ears, and horns with parallel rings. Compared
with the Fujita gong, the profle of the ram heads on the four-ram zun is quite fat and the ram heads
on both double-ram zun are degraded into cone-shapes, which make them far removed from the
lifelikeness of the Fujita gong. Another extraordinary anatomical feature on the Fujita gong can be
seen in the rendering of the fetlock on the ram’s rear legs. The naturalism of this gong is further
enhanced by the curved silhouette of the body, which convincingly conveys the three-dimensional
volume of the animal.
The Shang bronze craftsmen’s creativity went beyond mere representation. One trait denoting the
Fujita gong as a sacred creature rather than a real animal can be found in the diamond-shaped
pattern on the forehead of the ram. This very symbol appears ubiquitously on the forehead of taotie,
the main theriomorphic motif on Shang/Zhou bronzes. What distinguishes the Fujita gong further
from a real animal is the pantheon of mythical creatures on the surface of the vessel. Both sides of
the ram’s body are embellished with large crested birds with clawed foot extending downward onto
the legs and their elongated tail curling around the haunches. The cover which forms the ram’s back
is further decorated with dragons and a taotie, and is surmounted by a kui dragon and a bird. The
standing kui dragon has striated decoration that is typical of southern bronzes. Similar dragons can
be found on the aforementioned Hunan elephant zun, and on the elephant zun vessel in the Freer
Gallery, Washington D.C. Also notable is the tiger motif flling the space on the ram’s chest. Tigers
were a popular motif in southern China, and appear on top of the handles of many ding vessels found
in Xingan county, Jiangxi province (see Shangdai Jiangnan [The Southern Land of Shang Dynasty],
Beijing, 2006, pp. 30-34, 38-41, 162-163, 166-168, etc.). A vertically-oriented tiger, like that on the
chest of the Fujita gong, can also be seen embellshing the chest of the Hunan elephant vessel. Tigers
were also used as surface decoration on Anyang bronzes, particularly during the early Yinxu period,
such as the previously discussed Ya Chang bufalo-form zun and the Fu Hao yue axe, illustrated in
Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, col. pl. 13. The use of the tiger motif in Anyang is
believed to have been infuenced by southern bronzes.

218 IMPORTANT CHINESE ART FROM THE FUJITA MUSEUM