Ornament (shi飾) with mask

• 1. Bought from Alice Boney, New York, NY. For price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920.

  2. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1953) It is difficult to determine just how this ornament was used, or the need for so many perforations in its back. However, one may suppose that it was applied to clothing and had other jade ornaments attached to it. Anthropomorphic masks occur in early Chinese bronze, pottery and jade (see F1942.1, F1952.30, F1942.6, and F1939.4). No doubt there is some connection between them, and they may represent legendary religious gods or heroes. As pointed out above, the present example probably was attached to wearing apparel and the hole running vertically through the middle of the piece suggests that other pieces of jade may have been connected with it. This is also suggested by the fact that a bit of vermilion remaining in this hole is mixed with organic matter which might be the remains of cord or something of the sort.

  3. (John Rutherford Gettens, 1953) The red taken from the large vertical hole in the center of the piece was recognized microscopically as vermilion; the presence of mercury was confirmed by microchemical analysis. The vermilion was mixed with organic matter and calcium carbonate (chalk).

  4. (William B. Trousdale, 1964) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. Early Western Chou [Zhou] 周.

  5. (Julia K. Murray, from exhibition label, September 1980) Attribution is changed from Early Western Chou [Zhou] 周 to Shang 商, ca. 1523--1028 BCE.

  6. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, July 2, 2008) As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, changed Date from "2nd millennium BCE" to "early 2nd millennium BCE." Added life dates and biographical reference for Source: Alice Boney (1901--1988). Changed Object Name from "Mask ornament" to "Jewelry"; changed title from "Mask ornament" to "Fitting in the form of a human face." Added designation "nephrite" to Medium as per Wen Guang 聞廣, as determined by infrared spectroscopy in June 1997. Added Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

  7. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Jewelry and Ornament added as secondary classification.

  8. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, June 29, 2010) Title changed from "Fitting in the form of a head" to "Fitting in the form of a human face."

  9. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, December 2, 2010) Title changed from "Fitting in the form of a human face" to "Ornament in the form of a human face"; changed "Shijiahe 石家河 culture" to "Longshan 龍山 culture."

  10. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 16, 2016) Date changed from "ca. 2000-1700 BCE" to "ca. 3000--1700 BCE"; title changed from "Ornament with mask" to "Ornament (shi 飾) with mask".

Draft catalogue entry for F1953.9; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Fitting
Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age period, 2nd millennium BCE
Shijiahe 石家河 culture, middle Yangzi 揚子 valley
Nephrite, translucent pale yellowish-green
Height 4.6 cm; width 4.1 cm; max. thickness 1.6 cm
Purchased from Alice Boney, New York
F1953.9

A roughly triangular piece of jade is worked into a sculptural depiction of a head with features much like S1987.880--a large round nose, bulging eyeballs, and circular earrings at the ears. The headdress, almost flat at the top, also dips to a point at the forehead. Instead of the fangs on the other examples from this group, the broad mouth shows thick lips and neat rows of teeth, like the image on the tablet F1915.87. The sides of the head describe a straight line. There are no hooked scrolls extending out, but an "H"-scroll executed in thin relief reaches down on either side of the ears like sideburns. The base of the neck also ends in a smooth convex curve, accented by a large incised scroll in the center, like a bowtie.

Unlike S1987.880, the surface and details on its face are in near-pristine condition. Its fine-grained pale greenish-yellow material is closely comparable to many examples in the group, their surfaces also virtually unaltered only along the edges (LTS1985.1.276.1). [1] However, the somewhat neat silhouette on the sides and at the base of the neck, as well as the rather awkward "bowtie" at the neck, suggest that damage to these (perhaps altered) areas might have been refinished and the entire piece re-polished to its current condition.

The back shows a complex system of perforations. A large hole pierces the head in the center from top to bottom. One set of linked tunnel-like drillings appears at the top corners and immediately below it on the back. Another set runs vertically down the middle of the back. These are all invisible from the front. The only perforations visible from the front are the two on the edge, at the level of the eyes. They are also drilled from both sides. The need for this many perforations on a single piece is not clear. Most other examples of this type have only a single perforation from top to bottom (S1987.880) or mere cylindrical drillings that do not connect (fig. 1). Like its pristine finish and the neat silhouette, these additional drillings also suggest efforts at adapting the piece for different use in subsequent times. Perhaps it is these modifications, robbing the piece of its original character, which caused Dohrenwend to remark that it "lacks something of the magical character" of the others in the group. [2]

Published: Doris J. Dohrenwend, "Jade Demonic Images from Early China," Ars Orientalis 10 (1975), fig. 6a-b.

Figure:
1.  Qishan head (see Liu Yunnhui 劉云輝, Zhouyuan yuqi 周原玉器 (Taibei: Zhonghua wenwu xuehui, 1996), cat. 192).

[1] The same fine pale yellow-green material was used for the carving in the British Museum (Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing [London: British Museum Press, 1995], fig. 21) and the Brundage collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Ren&‌eacute;-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argenc&‌eacute;, Chinese Jades in the Avery Brundage Collection: A selection of religious symbols, insignia of rank, ceremonial weapons, pendants, ornaments, figurines, miniature mountains and containers from the Neolithic period to modern times [San Francisco: de Young Museum Society and Patrons of Art and Music for the Center of Asian Art and Culture, 1972], pl. X: top). Only the example from Fengxi 灃西 seems to have used a different, gray-green material (Zhang Changshou 張長壽, "Ji Fengxi xin faxian de shoumian yushi 記灃西新發現的獸面玉飾," Kaogu 考古 1987.5, pp. 470--73).

[2] Doris J. Dohrenwend, "Jade Demonic Images from Early China," Ars Orientalis 10 (1975), p. 64. A more extreme suggestion would be that the entire piece is a recent copy of one of the known examples. The almost extravagant system of perforations on the back, however, does not support this possibility. They have a quality of unplanned additions to adapt an existing object to new uses. The uncertainty about this head may have contributed to scholars' hesitation in using it in their discussions.

• Alfred Salmony. Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty. New York, 1963. cat. 6a,b,c, pl. 12.
• William Watson. The Art of Dynastic China. New York, 1981. ill. 583.
• Geoffrey WIlls. Jade of the East., 1st ed. New York, 1972. fig. 36.
• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
• Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. p. 30.
• Doris J. Dohrenwend. Jade Demonic Images from Early China. vol. 10 Washington and Ann Arbor, 1975. pp. 55-78, fig. 6a-b.
• Wu Hung. "一组早期的玉石雕刻." I'tsu tsao-ch'i ti yu-shig tiao-k'o [A Group of Early Jade and Stone Carvings]., 1979. p. 69, fig. 13.
• Richard Gump. Jade: Stone of Heaven., 1st ed. Garden City, 1962. p. 90.
• Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Fang Gu. Yuqi shidai: Meiguo bowuguan cang Zhongguo zaoqi yuqi [The Jade Age: Early Chinese Jades in American Museums]. Beijing, 2009. p. 147.