Bronzes from Count Yu's Tomb

 

 

 

Early Zhou art shows considerable continuities from Shang tradition.  For the first two centuries of Zhou, all  major vessel classes and all the main types of ornament used by the Shang continued to be used.  Ancestors remained central to the religious imagination in Western Zhou times.  Bronzes were often inscribed with reports to ancestors detailing the achievements of their descendants. Bronzes also continued to function as symbols of secular power, and were often given as gifts by the Zhou kings to their followers.   

How do the shapes and decorative motifs on the bronzes from the count's tomb shown below compare to those in Fu Hao's tomb? 

 

Some of the bronzes in the tomb  present entirely new shapes.

Compare this zun with the one from Fu Hao's tomb.

How is the treatment of the animal forms different?

 

Bronze elephant                                         Height: 22cm, Length: 38cm

SOURCE:  Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji yuguo mudi-xiace (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), p. 18. 

Why do you think the bird below has three legs?

Bird vessel      Height: 15.5cm, 21.4cm

SOURCE:  Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji yuguo mudi-xiace (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), p. 19. 

Bronze ding                      Height: 121.4cm

SOURCE:  Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji yuguo mudi-xiace (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), p. 17. 
SOME THOUGHTS:  Some have suggested that this bird is related to the legend about three-legged crows in the sun, but the form is closer to a turtle-dove.  The third leg might also be to provide stability.

 

 

 

Does this vessel remind you of shapes in another medium? 

 

ANSWER:  The shape of the lobed ewer is probably derived from pottery. 

Bronze ding                                 

SOURCE:  Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji yuguo mudi-xiace (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988),  p. 20. 

What do you think of the surface decoration on the vessel below and above compared to that on Shang bronzes?  

Covered bronze vessel 

SOURCE:  Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji yuguo mudi-xiace (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988),  p. 17. 
 

 

What purpose do you think this bronze figure may have served?

Bronze human figure                        Height: 11.6cm

SOURCE:  Zhongguo meishu quanji, Diaosu bian, 1 (Beijing: renmin meishu chubanshe, 1988),  p. 68.

 

What function do you think the piece below would have served on a chariot?

Front and back of bronze object                                                     Height: 13cm 

SOURCE:  Zhongguo meishu quanji, Diaosu bian, 1 (Beijing: renmin meishu chubanshe, 1988),  p. 67.

 

Move on to Jades in Count Yu's tomb