Object: Basin (jian) with narrative scenes F1915.107

Classification: Vessel

Historical period(s): Middle Eastern Zhou dynasty, ca. 5th century BCE

Object Date: ca. 5th century BCE

Medium: Bronze

Dimension(s): H x W: 28 x 61.4 cm (11 x 24 3/16 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1915.107

Provenance: To 1915
Marcel Bing (1875-1920), Paris, France [1]

1915
Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) and Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), Washington, DC and Mt. Kisco, NY purchased on behalf of Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) from Marcel Bing through C. T. Loo of Lai Yuan &Co., New York in early December 1915 [2]

1915 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Eugene Meyer on December 14, 1915 [3]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

Notes:

[1] Bing’s ownership is documented in several locations. See, for example: November 11, 1915 letter from Marcel Bing to Charles Lang Freer; letters from December 10 and 15 from Eugene Meyer to Charles Lang Freer; telegrams exchanged between Marcel Bing, Charles Lang Freer, and Eugene Meyer dating from November 15 to December 5, 1915; February 2, 1916 letter from Charles Lang Freer to Marcel Bing; and Freer Gallery of Art Original Bronze List S.I. 675. Copies of aforementioned documents in object file.

[2] Eugene Meyer, Agnes E. Meyer, and Charles Lang Freer negotiated with Marcel Bing to arrange a joint purchase of Bing’s collection of 11 Chinese bronzes and 1 jade. See correspondence cited in note 1. The Meyers and Freer decided to divide the collection - Meyers acquiring 5 bronzes and Freer acquiring 6 bronzes in addition to the jade – and the price, calculating each party’s payment was based on the appraisal values assigned to each piece. The Meyers ultimately sent the entire payment to C. T. Loo, Lai Yuan & Company (sometimes spelled Lai-Yuan), who in turn wired money to Bing. Meyers made the payment in early December 1915, with Freer paying the Meyers for the objects destined for his collection on December 14, 1915. See also: Freer Gallery of Art, Original Bronze List, S. I. 670; invoices from Lai Yuan & Company addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Meyer and Mr. Charles L. Freer; and Dorota Chudzicka, “’In Love at First Sight Completely, Hopelessly, and Forever with Chinse Art’: The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Collection of Chinese Art at the Freer Gallery of Art” in Collections Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer 2014), p. 334-335, copies in object file. All the objects included in this large sale, which were originally divided between the Meyers and Freer, are now in the museum’s collection ( F1915.102; F1915.03a-b; F1915.104; F1915.105; F1915.106a-f; F1915.107; F1915.108; F1961.30a-b; F1961.32a-b; F1968.28; F1968.29).

[3] See Original Bronze List, S.I. 675, copy in object file. See also note 2.

[4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous owner(s): C. T. Loo 盧芹齋 (1880-1957)
Lai-Yuan & Company (C.L. Freer source) (ca. 1915-April 1921)
Marcel Bing (1875-1920)
Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer ((1875-1959) and (1887-1970))
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Ceremonial basin ("chien"). Several small holes.
Surface: mingled green, red and brownish patina.
Decoration: engraved for inlay with mouldings in low relief. Inside: low relief, mask and ring mandles.

Past label text: 1. Ritual water basin, Jian
China, Shanxi or Henan province
Eastern Zhou dynasty, late 6th--early 5th century B.C.
Bronze 15.107

While the same group of workshops probably produced this water basin and the one directly across the room, the surface decoration of the two is entirely different. The pictorial images on this basin are among the earliest instances of pictorial representations in China.
Repeated seven times around the outside is a series of animals, fish, and birds among hunters on foot and on chariots drawn by two or four horses. Some of the hunters carry swords and shields; others are armed with bows and arrows. The images are flatly rendered, more like pictographs than accurate descriptions.
The interior wall of the basin is lined with an orderly parade of ducks, fish, and turtles molded in high relief and rendered in great detail. With the basin full of water, the creatures would appear much in their element.

2. (Keith Wilson, "Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry," October 14, 2017 to Apr 15, 2018, Gallery 18, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Basin (jian) with hunting scenes
Middle Eastern Zhou dynasty, ca. 500–450 BCE
State of Jin, Houma foundry
Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1915.107

Conceptual Art
Capturing the tumult of a hunt, three registers of decoration on the exterior of this basin duplicate the same packed composition of figures pursuing, stabbing, and shooting animals. Look for the repeated appearance of two chariots, one drawn by two horses, the other by four. While the chariots and their drivers are depicted in profile, the horses and their harnesses are shown from above, splayed to each side. Joining this exciting chase are groups of three archers using tethered arrows to ensnare long-necked birds. Fish suggest the marshy setting of their quest. Meaning is conveyed through pictorial conventions in this early effort to depict real-life events.

Capturing Nature
Alive with activity, this basin is decorated with naturalistic imagery both inside and out. On the interior, three bands of aquatic life—water birds, fish, and turtles—convey the basin’s function as a container for liquids. Denser, more pictorial compositions on the exterior show a lively hunt in progress.

Pattern blocks were used to create this ornamentation. The raised creatures on the interior were probably made by stamping individual motifs into the clay mold for the cavity, while the sunken patterns on the exterior belong to larger narrative units that were repeated around the circumference of the clay model.

Curatorial Remarks

1. Purchased from Lai-Yuan and Company, New York. Formerly in the Bing Collection. For price, see S.I. 675, original "Bronze List." 2. (Undated folder sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese, Han. See further, S.I. 675, Appendix VII. 3. (C.L.F., undated) Rare and very important. At the Metropolitan Museum, 1919. 4. (J.E.L., 1931) Han or earlier--3rd century B.C. 5. (A. G. Wenley, 1946) Late Chou dynasty, 4th-3rd century B.C. Perhaps just at the end of the Chou period. 6. (J.A. Pope, 1968) Attributes this to Late Chou dynasty, late 6th-early 5th century B.C. 7. (T. Lawton, 1976) Changed from Late Chou dynasty, late 6th--early 5th century B.C., to Warring States Period, 5th century B.C. 8. (T. Lawton, 1982--From an exhibition label) Added Early to attribution. This large "chien," or basin, rises from a low foot; the full swelling shape of the body curves inward to meet a broad, sharply everted lip. A wide concave horizontal band beneath the lip of the basin is echoed by two narrow horizontal bands placed lower on the ceremonial vessel. Each of these narrower bands is decorated with diagonal and curl motifs cast in intaglio. The same design appears on the vertical edge of the everted lip. The narrow band on the foot of the basin is decorated with a braid pattern. Four large handles with three-dimensional monster masks support pendant rings. Although the handles are contemporaneous in style with the vessel, some technical aspects of the way they are joined to the body of the "chien" suggest that they might not be original. One of the handles is less finely cast and probably is a later replacement. An abstract linear design on the surfaces of the four pendant rings is cast in intaglio. The elaborate curvilinear forms of the monster masks, characterized by raised curls and relief motifs, are similar to those found on bronze "chien" unearthed at Shan-pioa-chen and at Liu-li-ko, Honan province, and in tomb 25 at Fen-shui-ling, Ch'ang-chih, Shansi province. The widest horizontal register on the exterior of the basin is filled with stylized human figures, chariots, fish, birds, and animals. Both two and four-horse chariots are represented. Some human figures carry swords and shields; others are archers and use a particular type of weighted arrow. All are represented in silhouette, with a few specific details--such as eyes, drapery folds, and harnesses--simply indicated. The basic compositional unit is repeated seven times around the entire vessel. In decorating the two remaining registers on the outside of the basin, the artisan divided the elements of the widest register and selected elements from the upper portion for the top-most register and elements from the lower portion for the lowermost register. Once again, the specific compositional units are repeated several times around the outer surface of the vessel. The meaning of these scenes has been interpreted by a number of scholars. Charles Weber provides a convenient summary of the different options. The relief areas on some vessels with pictorial decorations are filled with a contrasting metal--frequently copper or silver--but there is some uncertainty as to whether the sunken portions of the Freer "chien" might originally have been inlaid. No traces of inlay remain. The recessed areas are now filled with cerussite, a whitish corrosion product of lead. On the inner surface of the Freer basin are bands of ducks, fish, and turtles modeled in high relief, with special attention to patterns describing different textures. The top register depicts fourteen ducks, alternately walking and swimming. In the second register, two different sizes of fish seen in profile and, curiously, presented upside down, alternate with the ducks. On the bottom register are turtles with their heads alternately pointed upward and downward. A "p'an" acquired by L. Wannieck at the site of Li-yu in 1923 and now in the Musee Guimet is decorated with a similar assemblage of ducks, fish, and turtles on the interior surface. Virtually identical relief ducks and fish appear on the "chien" found at Liu-li-ko. Perhaps the earliest instance of fish of this type cast on the interior of a bronze vessel is provided by a "p'an" in the Shanghai Museum, which is assigned to the early Spring and Autumn period. The tradition of decorating the interior surfaces of bronze vessels with fish and other creatures can be traced as far back as the Shang dynasty. Shang assemblages are varied; fish are sometimes grouped together with dragons and birds. During the late Eastern Chou the creatures cast on "p'an" and "chien" have a natural association with water are depicted as though they actually were swimming. The departure from the hieratic assemblages of the Shang period in a favor of a more pronounced realism in the late Eastern Chou reflects a greater emphasis on the more secular functions of the vessels. When Charles Lang Freer acquired this "chien" in 1915, it was assigned to the Han dynasty, as were most comparable bronze vessels at that time. Although precise dating of vessels with pictorial representations continues to pose problems, recent archaeological finds make it possible to amend earlier attributions. The details of fish, ducks, and turtles on the Freer "chien" relate them to the representations on bronze vessels associated with the Li-yu style. Although those bronzes do vary in style and chronological sequence, the over-all shape of the Freer "chien," as well as the single band of braid decoration on the foot rim, immediately recall the Chih chun-tzu "chien," one of which is also in the Freer collection (39.5). The brief inscription inside the Chih chun-tzu "chien" indicates that they were cast prior to 453 B.C. Some further range in dates for bronzes with pictorial decoration is provided by the examples of inlay vessels from the tomb of Marquis Chao of Ts'ai. In addition, some bronzes with pictorial decoration have been unearthed with vessels that can be dated stylistically to a general period. For instance, in the official report for the finds at Shan-piao-chen, which have already been mentioned, Kuo Pao-chun proposes a date of 300-240 B.C. for the contents of tomb 1. More recently, Kao Ming has demonstrated that the tomb should be dated to the early years of the Warring States period. The "hu" found at T'ang-shen, Hopei province, the former territory of the state of Yen, at Kao-wang-ssu, Feng-hsiang, Shensi Province, and that found at Pai-hua-t'an, Ch'eng-tu, Szechwan Province, all point to an early fifth century B.C. date. Considering the evidence, there seems no question but that the "chien" with pictorial decoration should be assigned to the period between 500 and 450 B.C. 9. (J. Smith per Keith Wilson, 7/1/2008) Vessel added as secondary classification 10. (Jenny Liu, Researcher 7/28/06) The piece donated by 1961 (F 1961.32) by the Meyers. Aside from its noteworthy, bold artistic style, it has quite a history. It was acquired by the Meyers from C.T. Loo in 1915. At the time C.T. Loo was part of Lai Yuan & Co. (????)on 557 Fifth Avenue. Interestingly, on the same inventory list dated Dec. 10, 1915, there were three other Freer items, namely F15.107, 61.32, 68.29, and 15.102. Loo writes in his list to Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Meyer that 61.32 was discovered "in 1913 at a ruined tomb near Yü-Ling Fu." Also, the big basin with four handles was said to have come from "Si-An-Fu." (C.T. Loo's inventory note to Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Meyer, Dec. 10, 1915. Object file for F1961.331-b.) 11. (S. Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, 7 July 2010) Title changed from "Ceremonial basin (Chien). Several small holes" to "Basin (jian) with narrative scenes"; Object name changed from "Basin (chien)" to "Ritual vessel"; period from "Eastern Zhou" to "Middle Eastern Zhou dynasty."

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