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Lot Essay
The pictograph may be read 'fu yi' (Father Yi).
This large, exuberantly decorated guang has a number of unusual features that are unlike those on other published examples. The mouth of the large taotie masks is shown in a grin with hooked ends, a feature seen more often on zun but not on guang, although a number of guang are decorated with taotie masks. See R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, no. 49, for a zun, and two other zun from the Idemitsu Art Museum, Tokyo, and the Avery Brundage Collection, p. 298, figs. 49.8 and 49.9 respectively. On all three of these zun the mask is almost identical to that on the guang. A variation of this grinning taotie is seen on a fangyi and a zhi illustrated ibid., p. 297, figs. 49.4 and 49.5, but on both of these the grinning mouth is far simpler and does not show the teeth outlined by the raised narrow lips. Bagley refers to this decoration and the other unusual feature on this bronze as being prominent in late Anyang casting.
The second motif referred to is that of the large bird on either side of the spout. Each has a large pronged crest and spikes issuing vertically from the tail feathers. This bird can also be seen on a large you in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated ibid., p. 139, fig. 220. Like the guang the elements of this you are bold and exaggerated, creating a vessel of great power and presence.
This large, exuberantly decorated guang has a number of unusual features that are unlike those on other published examples. The mouth of the large taotie masks is shown in a grin with hooked ends, a feature seen more often on zun but not on guang, although a number of guang are decorated with taotie masks. See R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, no. 49, for a zun, and two other zun from the Idemitsu Art Museum, Tokyo, and the Avery Brundage Collection, p. 298, figs. 49.8 and 49.9 respectively. On all three of these zun the mask is almost identical to that on the guang. A variation of this grinning taotie is seen on a fangyi and a zhi illustrated ibid., p. 297, figs. 49.4 and 49.5, but on both of these the grinning mouth is far simpler and does not show the teeth outlined by the raised narrow lips. Bagley refers to this decoration and the other unusual feature on this bronze as being prominent in late Anyang casting.
The second motif referred to is that of the large bird on either side of the spout. Each has a large pronged crest and spikes issuing vertically from the tail feathers. This bird can also be seen on a large you in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated ibid., p. 139, fig. 220. Like the guang the elements of this you are bold and exaggerated, creating a vessel of great power and presence.