gui BM-1984-0531.1

Period:Western Zhou dynasty Production date:11thC BC
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:dragon
Dimensions:Height: 14.80 centimetres Width: 26 centimetres

Description:
Bronze ritual vessel of the type called gui. This gui consists of a tall footring topped by a bowl with large handles. Only one register of decoration covers the bowl consisting of two confronted high-relief profile dragon- or elephant-like creatures with coiled bodies against a low-relief pattern of leiwen. They face an animal head atop a protruding flange that is continued on the footring. The footring has one register of similar decoration, but this consisting of more sinuous dragon-like creatures with bottle horns, also against a leiwen background. The foot ring is othewise undecorated, just as the lip.The handles are topped by animal head; the handles, including the rectangular pendant, are decorated with birds’ wings and feet.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1987:Large profile dragons with coiled bodies are identified with Western Zhou bronze-casting. They appear, for example, on the Da Feng gui in the Historical Museum, Beijing, a vessel whose inscription refers to Wen Wang, father of the conqueror Wu Wang. Such dragons embellish other vessels, especially gui, with inscriptions that can be dated to the early Western Zhou period. The motif also appears on bronzes excavated in western China, in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, including lei with extravagant flanges discussed in the Introduction (Fig. 13).Coiled dragons seem to have been invented at the very beginning of the Western Zhou period, or just before the conquest, takign advantage of a Shang design. The large coiled body is based upon a dragon such as that shown in no. 21. To create a profile version of the creature the head seems to have been cut off the body and a new profile head attached. Other early Western Zhou bronzes display similarly naive inventions.