Page 9 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC
P. 9

Fig. 1. Stone (Lingbi
                                                                                                 limestone) chime with
                                                                                                 tiger décor, Shang
                                                                                                 dynasty, probably 13th-
                                                                                                 11th century BC. from
                                                                                                 Anyang, Henan province,
                                                                                                 National Museum of
                                                                                                 China, Beijing.
                                                                                                 圖一　河南安陽殷墟出土商
                                                                                                 晚期虎紋（靈璧）石磬，中
                                                                                                 國國家博物館，北京。


          beasts”, or baishou zhi wang, due its power and ferocity and especially to the   arrangement of those markings varies from piece to piece. Both the present
          markings on its forehead which typically resemble the character wang , or   pendant and that of Lady Fu Hao sport a T-shaped appendage atop the
          “king”. In addition, not only did the tiger figure among the twelve animals of   head, as does the tiger on the Shang stone chime. The suspension hole
          the Chinese zodiac, but it gained a place among the auspicious animals that   in both the present pendant and the stone chime was drilled through the
          symbolize the four cardinal directions—the white tiger, or baihu, of the west,   T-shaped appendage but in the Fu Hao pendant it was drilled through the
          the azure dragon of the east, the vermillion bird of the south, and the black   tiger’s face, immediately in front of the eye. Apart from the color of the
          tortoise of the north.                              jade—the present pendant is a rich, warm brown, the Fu Hao pendant is
                                                              white—the main difference between the two pendants is the basic shape:
          Each side of this flat jade pendant is embellished with identical imagery that   the present example claims an overall triangular shape with the tiger
          shows the tiger crouching and set to pounce; its large head lowered, its mouth   portrayed in a crouching position, its head and forequarters slightly raised,
          open, its fangs bared, its sizable forequarters tensed, its tail curled, this tiger   while the Fu Hao pendant, like an inverted jade huang, has an arced shape,
          exemplifies power, virility, and ferocity. Its pose is virtually identical to that of   the tiger’s body curved upward with its head and tail higher than its belly.
          the tiger featured on the celebrated Shang-dynasty stone chime   excavated
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          in 1950 from a tomb at Anyang, Henan province, the last Shang capital, and   A principal wife of Shang-dynasty King Wu Ding (r. c. 1250–c. 1192 BC),
          now in the collection of the National Museum of China, Beijing. (Fig. 1) This   Lady Fu Hao was a powerful figure who gave birth to a royal prince and
          tiger also relates closely in presentation to that on Shang-dynasty engraved   served as a military leader, apparently leading troops into battle.  That jade
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          bones recovered at Anyang and now in the collection of the University of   objects of this type were buried in her tomb—along with some 2,000 other
          Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia (65-2-  luxury items—attests to the importance of such pieces as well as to their
          1A  and 65-2-3 ). It also shows remarkable kinship to the tigers engraved on   elite associations. Presumably made during Lady Fu Hao’s lifetime or shortly
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          the convex face of a bone spatula excavated from Tomb M1001 at Xibeigang,   thereafter, the objects recovered from her tomb must date to around 1200
          Anyang, Henan province.  5                          BC, the approximate year of her death. The kinship of the present pendant
                                                              to that from Lady Fu Hao’s tomb not only attests to its Shang-dynasty
          This pendant relates most closely to the tiger pendant measuring 13.3   origins but points to a date of manufacture in the Shang period, probably
          centimeters long excavated at Anyang in 1976 from the tomb of Lady Fu   between the late thirteenth and the mid-late eleventh century BC.
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          Hao (d. c. 1200 BC).  (Fig. 2) The crouching posture, the massive head and
          forequarters, the open mouth, the bared fangs, the stubby paws, and the   Characterized in Chinese as chenzixingyan, or eyes in the shape of the
          curled tail with chevron stripes are all notably similar, as are the stylized   character chen, the tiger’s eyes on both the present pendant and that from
          surface markings that enliven the animal’s body, though the shape and   Lady Fu Hao’s tomb are large and similarly shaped, with a large, circular

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          婦好墓玉虎的虎首上方各有一個T形紋飾，商代石磬的虎首亦然。本拍品及石磬在T形              物陳列館，館藏號R001579)。  實際上，大眼下鉤是商代繪畫藝術的一大特徵，常見於
          紋飾上鑽一小孔，而婦好墓玉虎的繫孔則是在虎面眼側。本拍品呈腴潤的深棕色，而婦              當時青銅禮器之獸面。
          好墓玉虎用的是白玉，兩者除了顏色有別，最主要的區別在於其基本形狀：本拍品大致
          呈三角形，猛虎作匍匐狀，虎首及上半身略仰，婦好墓玉虎則如玉璜，呈圓弧狀，虎弓              就虎牙的描寫而言，本拍品與婦好墓玉虎均具大牙利齒。其表現手法屬於典型的商代
          身向前，首尾均高於腹部。                                        風格，即在大致圓形的虎口邊緣鑽四至六個小孔，小孔之間凸起的玉石象徵虎牙。相形
                                                              之下，商代玉虎的虎爪泰半粗短，雕工隨性，本拍品與婦好墓玉虎亦屬此列，其趾爪均
          婦好乃商王武丁(公元前1250-1192年)之愛妻，她位高權重，曾誕一子，並親自領兵馳騁        以短淺彎曲的陰線來表達。
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          沙場。 她墓中有兩千多件奢華的陪葬品，上述一類玉件能躋身其中，足證其地位非凡，
          物主亦絕非等閒之輩。墓中文物應是婦好生前或死後未幾製作而成，故斷代為公元前               本拍品及婦好墓玉虎的虎頸均飾盾形斑紋，狀若紋章盾，頂為鋸齒狀或波紋。這類盾紋
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          約1200年婦好去世前後。本拍品與婦好墓出土玉珮如斯接近，足以據此推定前者出自             亦見於婦好墓玉玦、商代石磬和若干小巧的商代玉虎像，如婦好墓出土的深棕玉虎，
          商代，且製作年代應為商末，很可能是在公元前十三世紀末至十一世紀中葉之間。                以及香港佳士得於2020年11月29 日拍出的玉虎 (拍品編號2727)。  此外，前述安陽出土
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                                                              的雕花骨器、賓夕凡尼亞大學藝術博物館藏文物及紐約大都會藝術博物館藏骨器 (館
          本拍品及婦好墓玉虎的虎紋俱眼若銅鈴，形狀相近，巨瞳渾圓，前端明顯下折為鉤，即              藏號1985.214.120)   的虎身與虎尾，亦綴以同樣的盾形斑紋，可見它們呈現的確是條紋
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          所謂的臣字形眼。兩者的虎目與石磬所見雷同，近似例還包括：婦好墓出土的虎形玉               和斑點無疑。此類斑紋亦出現在商代石磬的虎頸與虎尾，惟其構圖更為精巧。
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          玦  及鴞形玉珮 (亦稱玉鳥刻刀) ；1954年出土的虎形玉玦 (今藏天津博物館)；  以及
          1935-36年安陽西北岡M1567號大墓出土的精巧玉象 (現藏台灣台北中央硏究院歷史文
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