Water buffalo

1. Original Folder Sheet note indicates name of source and location at date of acquisition. Source address listed in this record is most current.

Acquired from the von der Heydt collection in February 1973; transferred from the Study Collection (SC-S-7), August 1978. Museum of Natural History No. 448091.
 
2. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Examples of Chinese stone animal sculpture from the Shang 商 dynasty are extremely rare. Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 in Inkyo 殷墟 (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1965) provides a convenient series of reproductions of most of those pieces now extant.

The surface of the Freer water buffalo is unornamented in contrast with that of the well known example formerly in the Sedgewick collection (Laurence C. S. Sickman and Alexander C. Soper, The Art and Architecture of China, [Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1956], pl. 2b), where incised lines suggest specific features, musculature, and abstract designs.
 
3. (Julia K. Murray, A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions 1970--1980 [Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1979], no. 1) [As "Kneeling Water Buffalo."] Roughly hewn from a block of marble, this water buffalo presents a monumental, forceful appearance despite its modest size. Although its features are no more than summarily indicated, the creature's identity is assured by the unmistakable pair of curved horns on top of its head. Examples of the kneeling water buffalo are known from excavations of Shang 商 sites at Anyang 安陽. [1] While these excavated figurines often bear secondary designs and stylized features incised on the surface of the stone blocks, in shape and general handling of the stone medium they are closely relatable to the Freer piece.
 
Study of the incised examples indicates that the animal is in a kneeling posture, baring its teeth. The protrusion on each side of the head, furthermore, is clearly revealed to be an ear. A white marble elephant found in excavations at Anyang 安陽 before World War II may be used in a comparison with the Freer water buffalo. [2] Of approximately the same size, the elephant also is left with unadorned surfaces instead of being covered with incised patterns. By shape and indication of its most characteristic attributes, the identity of the animal is conveyed, leading many writers to describe Shang 商 sculpture as "abstract" or "symbolic."
 
[1] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Inkyo 殷墟 (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1965), pl. 136: 2 shows a white marble water buffalo somewhat larger than the Freer piece excavated before 1949 at Anyang 安陽. Another of the same type found recently is reproduced in the excavation report from Tomb 5 of Fu Hao 婦好 at Anyang 安陽 (Zhongguo kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Anyang gongzuo dui 中國科學院考古研究所安陽工作隊, "Anyang Yinxu wuhao mu de fajue 安陽殷墟五號墓的發掘," Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1977.2, pl. 34: 1 and p. 83, fig. 1). An unprovenanced example formerly belonging to the Sedgwick collection is reproduced in Laurence C. S. Sickman and Alexander C. Soper, The Art and Architecture of China, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1956), pl. 2b.

[2] Umehara 梅原, op. cit., pl. 136: 1.
 
4. (Jenny F. So, September 25, 1995) Excavation of a royal tomb at Anyang 安陽 Xibeigang 西北崗 M1500 yielded pairs of marble animals, placed in a line on either side of the ramp leading to the tomb. The three pairs excavated (see photocopy with Folder Sheet) show a dragon as the head, a buffalo in the middle, and a tiger at the end. The disposition of these animals in their present grouping and in the tomb suggest such large marble sculpture probably played protective or symbolic roles in Shang 商 funerary customs.
 
5. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, June 19, 2008) Stone added as secondary classification.
 
6. (Stephen Allee, November 12, 2008) Changed Object Name from "Figure: animal" to "Sculpture (animal)."

7. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 22, 2017) Period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang".

8. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, December 7, 2018) Added Chinese translation from Jinming Zhang.