Ornament with mask

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, June 19, 2008) Stone added as secondary classification.

  2. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 2, 2017) Title changed from "Fitting in the form of a taotie" to "Fitting with mask"; medium changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang";

  3. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 25, 2018) Title changed from "Fitting with mask" to "Ornament with mask"; added Chinese translation by Jingmin Zhang; and added unpublished research by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber.

Draft catalogue entry (no. 83) for S2012.9.252 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--90); by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber

Fitting
Shang 商 dynasty, 13th--12th century BCE
Marble
Height 9.4 cm (3 11/16 in)
 
The fitting, which was probably inserted into a wooden support, is squarish in outline, with a large protuberance in the shape of a bird's beak jutting forward at the lower center. The front surface of the fitting is occupied by a taotie 饕餮 mask, of which the beak is an integral part. Its large eyes are indicated by deep grooves, but the more angular configurations of the horns and ears are depicted in double outlines, making these features appear as if they were in low relief. A slot cut transversely through the center of the upper edge divides the tops of the two horns, while notches at the sides accent the separation between the horns, ears, and lower jaw. At either side of the beak, where it curves under, is an incomplete circular drilling. The back of the fitting is plain and shows a depression worked away behind the beak.

The object is closely analogous in shape and decoration to a slightly smaller marble fitting recovered from Tomb 1002 of the middle Anyang 安陽 period at Houjiazhuang 候家莊. [1] Other similar fittings excavated from the same tomb differ only in so far as the lines forming the taotie 饕餮 are rendered in true relief. [2] The angular style of carving characteristic of all these fittings is also typical of the decorated jades of this period and corresponds with the florescence of the leiwen 雷紋 relief style (Style 5a) in bronze decor. [3]  A somewhat larger, socketed marble fitting, showing a more fully sculptural rendition of a beaked taotie 饕餮 at both the front and back, was unearthed at Houjiazhuang 侯家莊 from Tomb 1001, which is known to be earlier than Tomb 1002. [4]
 
Published: Archaic Chinese Jades: Special Exhibition, February, 1940 (Philadelphia: University Museum, 1940), no. 3; Osvald Siren, Kinas Konst under tre Artusenden (Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1942), pl. 17; Max Loehr, Relics of Ancient China, from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer (New York: Asia Society, 1965), no. 23.
 
[1] Liang Siyong 梁思永 and Gao Quxun 高去尋, Houjiazhuang: Henan Anyang Houjiazhuang Yindai mudi 侯家莊：河南安陽侯家莊殷代墓地 (Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1965), vol. 4, pl. 24:6, pl. 26.

[2] Ibid., pl. 24:1--5, 7, pls. 25, 27--28.

[3] See Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, "Some Anyang Royal Bronzes: Remarks on Shang Bronze Décor," in The Great Bronze Age of China: A Symposium, ed. George Kuwayama (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983), p. 43, n. 86.

[4] Liang Siyong 梁思永 and Gao Quxun 高去尋, Houjiazhuang: Henan Anyang Houjiazhuang Yindai mudi 侯家莊：河南安陽侯家莊殷代墓地 (Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1962), vol. 2, pls. 79--81.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .