J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Ancient Chinese Bronzes
March 19 - April 9, 2011
18.
AN INLAID GILT BRONZE BEAR
Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220)
vigorously modelled in a tense, crouching pose, leaning forward and snarling with jaws open wide, all four paws with long sharp claws and with a wide ruff of fur framing the head, the surface elaborately incised all over with short wavy lines to suggest fur and with tiered wings or flame motifs curling back from the haunches and shoulders and incised with small ring motifs, the straight backbone also with small ring motifs and with short, curled fur or flames incised above the stubby tail, the eyes deeply hollowed for inlays now lost, and showing cinnabar red in the recesses, the forehead and raised ears with turquoise inlays, and the arms, legs and belly all with deep circular recesses showing cinnabar remaining inside, the body hollow-cast and the top of the head with a wide opening, the surface richly gilded and the gilding very well preserved, with some small areas of bright green corrosion around the arms and feet.
Height 2 7⁄8 inches (7.2 cm)
Compare the smaller gilt bronze bears supporting a hu wine container inscribed with a Han date corresponding to A.D. 45, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Weng and Yang in The Palace Museum: Peking; Treasures of the Forbidden City, New York, 1982, p. 143, pl. 76.
Other similar Han gilt bronze bears in various sizes, all hollow-cast as vessel supports and with provision for inlays, are published by Brinker, Bronzen aus dem alten China, Zurich, 1975, p. 153, no. 125, in the collection of the Rietberg Museum; by Ayers in the catalogue of the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum entitled The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art, London, 1970, no. 12; in the catalogue entitled Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 256; and by Delacour in the catalogue published by the Museé Guimet entitled De bronze, d’or et d’argent: Arts somptuaires de la Chine, Paris, 2001, p. 292, fig. 5.
漢 鎏金嵌松石熊形銅足
高 7.2 厘米