Page 51 - 2020 Nov 30 Christie's Hong Kong Scholars Art Of China

fig. 1
圖一
2714 Continued

The motif of the owl is one of the earliest and most prominent images 青玉鴞，立姿圓雕，玉質溫潤，呈青黃色，器身佈有殘留硃砂。昂首挺
in ancient China. As early as the Neolithic periods, owl was already 立，體型渾圓，雙足壯碩，鶚喙前鈎，圓眼微凸，全身以勾雲紋狀用陽
represented in the art of different cultures, such as the pottery owls 線雕琢成羽飾翎紋，整體造型簡潔大器，生動可人，與殷墟出土的玉鶚
of the Yangshao Culture (C. 5500-3500 BC), and jade carvings of
small owls of the Hongshan Culture (C. 4000-3000 BC). By the Shang （465）相類（圖一）。鶚，在上古時代即被認為可以通神，紅山及仰韶
dynasty, the owl was depicted in round sculptural forms in various media 文化皆有鶚形實物出土，鶚的造型則在商代達到頂峰，且被尊為克敵致
including jade, marble, and bronze, almost invariably in a powerful 勝的「戰神」，所以多以威武造型呈現，歷史考古學家劉敦愿（1918-
stance, as the Shang people may have believed it to represent the God 1997）與已故上海博物館館長馬承源（1927-2004）都持此看法。
of War. Compare to a closely related jade owl was found in the tomb of
Fu Hao, see The Jades from Yinxu, Beijing, 1981, no. 56 (465) (fig. 1).

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