zun BM-1954-0220.4

Period:Shang dynasty Production date:12thC BC (circa)
Materials:bronze
Technique:cast
Subjects:dragon taotie
Dimensions:Diameter: 29.50 centimetres Height: 30.80 centimetres

Description:
Bronze ‘zun’. ‘Taotie’ and dragon decoration.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1992:’Zun’ is a ritual wine vessel consisting of a jar with a widely flared lip supported on a tall footring. In the second half of the Shang the shouldered ‘zun’ was replaced by a taller columnar vessel based on the ‘gu’ and often designated as a cylindrical ‘zun’.Group of bronzes found in graves demonstrate that sets, which included a large number of shapes, were used. There were as many as twenty different types, although only a much smaller number was essential. A group of vessels of the types most commonly found in Shang tombs was recovered from a single tomb of a high-ranking Shang noble, the tomb known as Tomb 18 at Anyang Xiaotun. Wine vessels, such as this one, dominated the sets, in numbers, complexity of shape and elaboration of decoration. Food containers were less complicated and only in the Western Zhou did they come to be pre-eminent in the ritual vessel set. As a group, bronze ritual vessels would have created a striking visual effect. Golden in colour when first made, they would rapidly have turned black in the humid summer climate of north-central China.