Period:Shang dynasty Production date:1100BC-900BC (circa)
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Dimensions:Height: 11 centimetres
Description:
Bronze finial. This exquisite tiny bronze is made as tier of creatures. At the base is a small rectangular slot to attach it to a wooden staff. Crouched above the slot is a monkey-like figure with trailing feathers and, perched on his head, a human-looking figure clutching a bird in his hands; a tiger clambers up the back of this second figure and grasps his head in its jaws. The black surface of the bronze is embellished with intaglio lines.
IMG
![图片[1]-finial BM-1968-0422.6-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Shang dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00328320_001.jpg)
![图片[2]-finial BM-1968-0422.6-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Shang dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00760516_001.jpg)
![图片[3]-finial BM-1968-0422.6-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Shang dynasty/Bronzes/mid_01448709_001.jpg)
Comments:Rawson 1987:This exquisite tiny bronze is made as tier of creatures. At the base is a small rectangular slot to attach it to a wooden staff. Crouched above the slot is a monkey-like figure with trailing feathers and, perched on his head, a human-looking figure clutching a bird in his hands; a tiger clambers up the back of this second figure and grasps his head in its jaws. The black surface of the bronze is embellished with intaglio lines. Like the ram zun this casting lies outside the mainstream of Shang bronze art; however, unlike the ram it is difficult to place. The neat sculptural figures may indicate that the finial too comes from the south.There are a number of bronzes and jades that provide a context, however little understood, for the theme of a man, or man-like figure, grasped by a tiger. At Anyang a simplified version was employed, with a head alone flanked by a pair of tigers, as on an axe from Fu Hao’s tomb and on the handles of a large rectangular ding, known as the Si Mu Wu fang ding. On other apparently provincial vessels vivid examples are found. Earliest in date is a zun from Anhui Funan Xian, on which both the figure and a tiger with a divided double body are cast in relief. Two almost identical you in the shape of beasts clutching human figures just below their jaws are later in date, the profusion of creatures decorating their bodies being similar to the dense ornament of no. 7; one is in the Cernuschi Museum, Paris, and the other in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto. A finial formerly in the collection of the King of Sweden and a ritual knife in the Freer Gallery, Washington, are early Western Zhou examples of similar subjects. A few jades also illustrate figures grasped in the jaws of creatures (Fig. 11).
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Dimensions:Height: 11 centimetres
Description:
Bronze finial. This exquisite tiny bronze is made as tier of creatures. At the base is a small rectangular slot to attach it to a wooden staff. Crouched above the slot is a monkey-like figure with trailing feathers and, perched on his head, a human-looking figure clutching a bird in his hands; a tiger clambers up the back of this second figure and grasps his head in its jaws. The black surface of the bronze is embellished with intaglio lines.
IMG
Comments:Rawson 1987:This exquisite tiny bronze is made as tier of creatures. At the base is a small rectangular slot to attach it to a wooden staff. Crouched above the slot is a monkey-like figure with trailing feathers and, perched on his head, a human-looking figure clutching a bird in his hands; a tiger clambers up the back of this second figure and grasps his head in its jaws. The black surface of the bronze is embellished with intaglio lines. Like the ram zun this casting lies outside the mainstream of Shang bronze art; however, unlike the ram it is difficult to place. The neat sculptural figures may indicate that the finial too comes from the south.There are a number of bronzes and jades that provide a context, however little understood, for the theme of a man, or man-like figure, grasped by a tiger. At Anyang a simplified version was employed, with a head alone flanked by a pair of tigers, as on an axe from Fu Hao’s tomb and on the handles of a large rectangular ding, known as the Si Mu Wu fang ding. On other apparently provincial vessels vivid examples are found. Earliest in date is a zun from Anhui Funan Xian, on which both the figure and a tiger with a divided double body are cast in relief. Two almost identical you in the shape of beasts clutching human figures just below their jaws are later in date, the profusion of creatures decorating their bodies being similar to the dense ornament of no. 7; one is in the Cernuschi Museum, Paris, and the other in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto. A finial formerly in the collection of the King of Sweden and a ritual knife in the Freer Gallery, Washington, are early Western Zhou examples of similar subjects. A few jades also illustrate figures grasped in the jaws of creatures (Fig. 11).
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