CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

Zhou bronzes, the motif is deliberately ambiguous
and can be read either as two dragons represented
in profile, or as one central horned mask (taotie)
with two dragon bodies — or the spliced body of
a single dragon — emerging from it. The frontal
"mask" aspect of the motif is enhanced by the addition
of a three-dimensionally sculptured miniature
buffalo head below the central flange.
This constellation of dragons in profile and a
frontal buffalo head recurs in slightly different form
on the face of the rim handles. Here the buffalo
head is reduced to an abstract chiffre placed between
— and thus separating — the two dragons
ascending toward it. Like their counterparts on the
vessel walls, these dragons have curled tails, sinuous
bodies, and mushroom-shaped horns, but each
sports two legs instead of one.
The slightly bulging legs of this ding feature
relief animal masks with pointed spiraling ram's
horns. A different type of mask adorns the three
lateral handles, notable for its wide, upright horns,
which — like the small buffalo heads on the vessel
body — must have been precast and inserted in the
mold assemblage; the rest of the vessel would have
been cast around them.
The combination of bold relief and sculptural
elements is characteristic of the bronze style of the
latter phase of the Early Western Zhou period
(c. 1000-950 BCE). 3 Its confident execution may
indicate that this is a product of a workshop
attached to the Zhou royal house. LVF
1 Excavated in 1979; published: Chunhua 1980; Hayashi
1984, 2:17, fig. 191; Higuchi and Enjoji 1984, no. 44; Li
Xueqin 1986, i: nos. 135-136; Rawson 1990, part 1:31, fig. 23;
Wenwu jinghua 1990, no. 51.
2 For example, a dragon-shaped handle, 60 (23 s /s) in length,
from Julianghaijia, Fufeng, Shaanxi province (Gao 1994).
3 Hayashi 1984.
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