CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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Painted lacquer screen
Height 15 (5 7s), width 51.8 (20 Ys)
Middle Warring States Period, c. middle or second
half of the fourth century BCE
From Tomb i at Wangshan, Jiangling,
Hubei Province
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan
This small screen, which stands on two nearly
square feet, is made of a rectangular frame set with
various animals carved in the round. 1 The somewhat
static composition of two symmetrical groups
of figures is enlivened by the figures themselves:
All the animals, even the smallest, are engaged in
combat, and they are rendered with an attention
to proportion and detail likely taken from direct
observation. Deer, frogs, and two different species
of birds — the main figures in the composition —
battle intertwined serpents; the snakes bite or
menace the deer and the frogs, while the birds
aggressively seize the snakes with their claws or
grasp them in their beaks as if to swallow them. At
the base of the stand (probably intended to represent
the subterranean world), intertwined snakes,
densely massed, are caught in the act of smothering
small birds. Such reptilian iconography was particularly
developed in the art of the Chu kingdom. 2
The images of attack and escape are imaginatively
presented to pull the viewer into the scene.
Attacked from behind, one of the frogs in each of
the panels faces out, while the other is seen from
the rear; deer are captured in flight as they seek,
vainly, to escape the serpents. The composition can
be interpreted as a representation of life and death
— and particularly of violent (albeit natural) death.
Animal combat scenes from pre-imperial China
only rarely display such naturalism and keen observation.
Probably influenced by animal representations
from the steppe regions, 3 Chinese artists
made use of the theme from the sixth century BCE on.
The screen can be viewed from any angle —
even the narrow sides and areas normally obscured
from sight are decorated with interlaced serpents
— evidence of the high quality of this refined
sculpture (fig. i). The figures are carved separately
316 | CHU AND OTHER CULTURES