An archaic bronze ritual food vessel (Liding), Late Shang / Western Zhou dynasty | 商 / 西周 青銅三足鬲鼎

Belgian Private Collection.

Acquired in Belgium, circa 1960.

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比利時私人收藏

得自比利時，約1960年

The present liding represents a grand and imposing example of ritual vessels from the transition between the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. With prominent taotie masks covering its lobed body – featuring protruding eyes, rounded nostrils and curled horns and fangs – the present vessel epitomizes the zenith of the early representational style before the gradual move to abstraction in the ensuing centuries. 

Particularly notable in the present design are the two layers of scrolling C- and S-shapes horns rising from pairs of elongated eyes. This design variation is extremely rare with only one other closely related vessel apparently attested, reproduced in Bernhard Karlgren, ‘New Studies on Chinese Bronzes’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 9, Stockholm, 1937, pl. VIII, no. 202. For other related liding of this period, compare the Ya Yu Ding, excavated in 1984 from tomb M1713 in Anyang, Henan, recorded in the Institute of Archaeology CASS, Yinxu xin chutu qingtongqi [Ritual bronzes recently excavated in Yinxu], Beijing, 2008, pl. 196; and four similarly decorated lobed vessels, illustrated in Robert Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, 1987, nos 93-95.

此三足鬲鼎為商末周初過渡時期禮器之範例，體現早期青銅藝術寫實風格之巔峰。其器身呈分瓣式鼓腹，通體以巨大的饕餮面紋為飾，雙目圓睜外突，鼻翼隆起，巨角卷曲，獠牙畢露，威儀赫然，展現商周交替之際青銅藝術向具象表現推至高峰，亦預示隨後逐漸走向抽象化之發展趨勢。

此器紋飾尤為罕見者，在於饕餮面紋之角部以兩層對稱之卷雲式「C」與「S」形線條構成，自修長雙目上方騰起，形態繁複華麗。據知，目前僅有一件紋飾風格相近之器物著錄，可參見高本漢（Bernhard Karlgren）所撰〈New Studies on Chinese Bronzes〉一文，刊於《遠東古物博物館學報》，第九期，斯德哥爾摩，1937年，圖版VIII，編號202。另可參考1984年河南安陽M1713號殷墟所出之亞魚鼎，著錄於中國社會科學院考古研究所編，《殷墟新出土青銅器》，北京，2008年，圖版196。再可參考羅伯特・巴格利（Robert Bagley）所著《Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections》，劍橋，1987年，編號93至95。