A MASSIVE BRONZE BELL, ZHONG

細節

A MASSIVE BRONZE BELL, ZHONG
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Of elliptical section, the two sides decorated with alternating rows of coiled serpents cast in high relief and bands of inverted dragon scroll, flanking a plain, central field, all within bowstring borders above a design of dragon scroll divided into four quadrants, the dragons in the lower row also inverted, with similar dragons cast on the top below a large handle formed by a faceted, arched bar issuing from the open jaws of two scaly beasts, the surface with mottled cuprite and ferrous encrustation
28½in. (72.4cm.) high

拍品專文

For a large bell of similar type in the Museum van Aziatische Kunst, Amsterdam see, William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 68a. For another bell with similar decoration from the Pillsbury Collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art see, George W. Weber, The Ornaments Of Late Chou Bronzes, New Jersey, 1973, pp. 314-317, pl. 66

Watson, op. cit., p. 64, notes that the sides of fifth-century bells are covered with ornament of the Huai kind, the hooks and volutes filling the spaces between the nipples. The so-called Huai style lasted through the fifth century and into the fourth. In the fourth century its characteristic motifs were replaced by others of a more geometric quality