Page 10 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

Fig. 2. Jade tiger pendant,
Shang dynasty, probably
13th century BC, from the
tomb of Lady Fu Hao (d.
circa 1200 BC), Anyang,
Henan province, Institute
of Archaeology, Chinese
Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS), Beijing.
©ICphoto
圖二 河南安陽殷墟婦好
墓出土商代玉虎，中國社
會科學院考古研究所，北
京。©ICphoto

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iris and a distinctive, downward-pointing hook at the front. They share those in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York (1985.214.120),
same eyes with the tiger on the stone chime, with the jade tiger-form jue indicating that they definitely represent stripes and spots.
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recovered from the tomb of Lady Fu Hao , with the jade owl-form pendant
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also from Lady Fu Hao’s tomb—also called a “jade bird-form knife” —with Another important stylistic feature of the present pendant, the one from
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the jade tiger-form jue excavated in 1954 and now in the Tianjin Museum, Lady Fu Hao’s tomb, and the Shang stone chime is the use of evenly spaced,
and with the small Shang jade sculpture of an elephant excavated in 1935- paired lines to describe details, those lines sometimes termed “double lines”.
36 from Tomb M1567 at Xibeigang, Anyang and now in the Academic On first inspection such details appear to be described with lines that rise in
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Sinica, Taipei (no. R001579). In fact, large, downward-hooked eyes are a low relief; in fact, that appearance is an optical illusion, or trompe-l’œil effect,
characteristic feature of Shang pictorial art and typically appear in the animal as those slender “relief lines” are actually flush with the object’s surface and
faces on contemporaneous bronze ritual vessels. seem to rise in relief only because of the intaglio lines, or grooves, that flank
them. Such trompe-l’œil relief lines are a feature of the finest Shang jades,
The fangs of the tigers on both the present and the Lady Fu Hao pendants including virtually all of the previously mentioned examples.
appear large and sharp. In typical Shang fashion, they were created by
drilling four to six small holes around the periphery of the generally circular This pendant’s stone is nephrite jade, known as ruanyu in Chinese, which
mouth, the jade points separating one hole from the next representing the had become the preferred hardstone among Chinese by Shang times. As
fangs. By contrast, the paws of the tigers on Shang pendants are usually seen in its midsection, the jade of this pendant is a warm, brownish green in
stubby and cursorily rendered as witnessed by both the present example and color, though many areas show a deep brown color perhaps due to surface
that from Lady Fu Hao’s tomb, the toes and associated claws indicated by accretions that accumulated over time or possibly due to exposure to heat or
intaglio lines that are short, curved, and shallow. fire. The orange material within the mouth and underneath the neck and legs
is cinnabar (mercury sulfide), which was sprinkled liberally in Shang tombs
The spot on the tiger’s neck on both the present pendant and that of Lady Fu perhaps in an attempt to restore the “blush of life”; it typically adheres to
Hao resembles a shield turned on its side—a shield in the form of an escutcheon artifacts recovered from those tombs.
with an engrailed, or scalloped, top. The jade tiger-form jue recovered from the
tomb of Lady Fu Hao and the Shang stone chime show the same shield-form This pendant is not only large but exceptionally thick, varying up to 9
spots, as do several small Shang jade sculptures of tigers, including the one millimeters, which further attests to the wealth and status of the person
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in dark brown jade recovered from Lady Fu Hao’s tomb and the one sold at for whom it was made. Shang jades often vary slightly in thickness, an
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Christie’s, Hong Kong, on 29 November 2020 (Lot 2727). Those same shield- emphasis on uniform thickness coming into play only much later. The slight
form markings appear along the bodies and tails of the tigers on the previously unevenness of this pendant’s surfaces, including the minor depression
mentioned engraved bones excavated at Anyang and on those in the University in the tiger’s midsection, likely was present in the original stone (i.e., the
of Pennsylvania Museum as well as on a bone engraved with a tiger and now raw material). As jade was rare, valuable, and highly prized, early Chinese

就本拍品、婦好墓玉虎及商代石磬而言，它們尚有一項重要的風格特徵，那便是運用 伏，例如虎的中段微凹，這很可能是原始玉料的自然形態。玉石罕貴，得之者珍若拱
等距雙線來刻畫細部。乍看之下，該等細節宛若用細線勾勒而成的淺浮雕，其實這僅是 璧，是以中國早期的玉匠皆不欲為追求成品厚薄如一而浪費石材。諸多材質之中，玉被
錯覺，又稱錯視，因為該等「浮雕」細線實則與器表齊平，只是在雙溝陰線的襯托下，方 奉為上品，其地位甚至高於金銀等貴重原料；這股崇玉之風 (有些考古學家更視之為中
營造出浮雕的視覺效果。此類錯視線條乃商代上乘玉器之特色，前文提到的諸多文物 國文化的經典特色)，亦道出了玉匠苦心孤詣保留原始石材的原因。
基本上皆有採用。
本玉虎其中一面虎首有一道「刀痕」，這是將原始石材 (多為大塊籽玉或小塊玉璞) 分
時至商代，本拍品所用的軟玉已成為玉石中的理想之選。軟玉質堅透亮，且色彩豐富， 割成塊狀時留下的痕跡，接下來方能將之定型、綴飾為玉珮和其他玉件。由於玉匠力
如白、綠、灰甚或黑皆可得見；商代玉器色調多變，但以碧綠、青綠、黃綠居多，也有本 圖保存珍稀的石材，所以未有打磨切痕，更遑論將之磨平；換言之，保留石材遠重於對
拍品所示的棕綠色。本玉虎的中段為溫潤的棕綠色，但另有多處呈深褐色，這或是器 厚薄均勻的追求。
表長年沁色，或是高溫、火炙所致。虎口之內及其頸、腿下的橘黃色為朱砂，此物在商
代古墓大量鋪灑，可能古人視之為起死還陽之物，故出土的墓葬文物常沾有朱砂。 是次拍賣的玉虎精美無匹，它不僅厚碩凝重、雕工嫺熟，最早來源可追本溯源自1939
年，紐約Arden藝廊自知名通運公司負責人姚昌復借展 （圖三及四）。 它與商后婦好墓
是次拍賣的玉虎碩大且格外厚重，最厚處約九毫米，再一次證明了物主非富則貴。商 出土的玉虎如出一轍，審美意趣和風格特色也與其他商代皇陵出土的玉器、磬和雕花
代玉器通常略為厚薄不勻，但厚薄均勻之說乃是相當後期的主張。此玉虎表面略有起 骨器有着千絲萬縷的關係，足見此乃商末奢華品的巔峰之作。此玉虎美不勝收，允稱
稀世奇珍中的上品。
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