Four Shang Bronzes : Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Anyang Period of the Shang Dynasty

ISBN-13: 9783639149692 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 120 str.

Kristina Laun

Opis

How can a collection of only four pieces bebeneficial to an entire field of scholarship? Wouldanyone disagree that more information about a subjectis a good thing? However, information about theindividuals who inhabited a specific society is justas important as generalized information about aculture as a whole. Insight into the life of theindividual allows us to see ourselves. Fellowship canbe achieved between people separated by time and space.Consisting of a li-ding, a gu, a jue, and a hu, thefour vessels reveal social status, personality, andperhaps in two cases, even a name. They are treatedseparately in order to give each work of art theattention it deserves. They are described andanalyzed according to form and detail. And an attemptwas made to interpret the inscriptions on two of thevessels."The Buffalo Collection" does not house examples onthe level of those buried with Fu Hao, nor are thesethe terra-cotta vessels of the lower-classes. Createdduring the the Anyang Period, these bronze ritualvessels belonged to the middle- and upper-middleclasses, who silently and loyally made thebureaucracy function day after day.

O autorze

Mrs. Laun received her Master in Arts degree in Art History from
the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2008. She
lectures at SUNY College at Geneseo and the University at
Buffalo. She is also the Associate Curator of the Buffalo
Religious Arts Center where she continues to pursue her study of
visual expressions of faith.