Page 127 - Sotheby's NYC September 20 2022 Forging An Empire Bronzes

Fig. 1 A bronze fang ding illustrated in Yinxu qingtong qi / Fig. 2 An archaic bronze ritual food vessel (Fangding), Shang dynasty ©
Bronze Vessels from Yin Xu, Beijing, 1985, pl. 232 and fig. 85: 1 The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis
圖一 青銅方鼎 錄於《殷墟青銅器》，北京，1985年，圖版232 圖二 商 青銅方鼎 © 聖路易斯美術館，聖路易斯
及圖85:1

Owyoung, who attributes the St. Louis fang ding also to the late Shang period, the 11th century BC,
carefully explains the taotie design as being based on earlier Erligang models, but stylistically adapted
in the Anyang phase of the Shang (op.cit., p. 77): “Instead of the dense leiwen ground, multiple motifs,
and elaborate structure of other Anyang-phase bronzes, this vessel adopts a simpler decoration which
is a condensed and rather compacted version of the earlier bronze decorative mode of Loehr Style II.
Found on bronzes dating from the 15th to 14th centuries BC, these are pre-Anyang designs in which the
zoomorphs are delineated by flat ribbons for their bodies and plain bosses for their eyes. The effect of the
decor is sculptural, a design in which the elongated and often flowing ribbons and curls of uneven width
are complemented by generous, equally irregular, and visually complex negative spaces. In contrast, the
design of spurred curls, S-shapes, and interlocking stemmed C-curls found on the Saint Louis piece is
deliberately linear, depending on thin, even, regular lines to simply produce the wide forms that suggest
the earlier Erligang-phase model but deny the richness of shadow and light of sculpted forms.”

It is interesting to compare the design on the present cauldron and the three comparisons listed
above to other related fang ding, where the design band is composed of thinner lines and more clearly
arranged in three horizontal rows, a style that can be attributed to the early Western Zhou period. An

至 14 世紀，為安陽時期之前的風格，該時期饕餮 出，鼎蓋甚爲罕見，現藏於北京故宮博物院，曾一
紋以浮雕條紋刻畫軀幹，獸目素面凸起，頗具雕塑 度斷代商末，現定為西周初，載於《故宮青銅器》
感。其線條流暢，寬窄相間，紋飾與留白相輔相 ，北京，1999年，圖版 23，以及《故宮經典：故
成，視覺效果繁複精巧。聖路易斯美術館收藏作例 宮青銅器圖典》，北京，2010年，圖版57；另比一
紋飾則以鉤形、S形及互扣之C形為主，以纖細均勻 例，與田告方鼎相近，圖載於高本漢，〈New Stud-
的綫條勾勒輪廓，雖具較早的二里崗風格，卻無其 ies on Chinese Bronzes〉，《Bulletin of the Museum
光影分明之豐富的雕塑感。」 of Far Eastern Antiquities》，1937年，第9期，圖版
XXVIII，編號18，作者形容其西周風格的饕餮紋為
與上述三例及本品相比較，其他相關方鼎作例之
紋飾則綫條較細，清楚分為上、中、下三排，屬 「三環獸紋」。本方鼎斷代商末，風格較早於以上
西周早期風格。可比一例，風格介於兩者之間， 作例，故其饕餮紋飾圍繞獸目更具自然分佈之勢。
斷代商朝，陝西扶風縣出土，載於羅伯特•貝格 本鼎鑄一復合族徽「天黽」，由人形及蛙形圖形
利，《Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler 文字組成。學者卡爾•亨茨認爲，此類復合族徽
Collections》，華盛頓，1987年，頁129，圖192；再 或為刻畫祖先英靈自獸首升起，（卡爾•亨茨，
比一例，陝西寳鷄出土田告方鼎，其西周風格突 〈Antithetische T’ao-t’ieh Motive〉，赫伯特•庫恩