The bronze sculptures in Shang Dynasty
All these have composed a mysterious atmosphere, embodying mental feature of heavy, constrain and enthusiastic sense. The arts of slavery society and religion are tied in a hundred and one ways, so the beauty it displayed is sort of ferocious pretty. Even though this beauty is made for deities and spirits, but its progress and existence have already conveyed the wisdom, confidence and ability of human to dominate the objects.
Its animal patterns are closely related to worship their ancestors. There are some animals is to help the shaman contact the heaven and hell, thus their image will be cast in ancient yi. It is not difficult to imagine that, the weird decorations on the bronze sculpture placed people in fear and dignity. And surrounded by the burning incense, these monsters star with the huge eyes and mouth opening widely and angrily which seems to roar in a flash. This kind of patterns can contribute to create serious and solemn, quiet and secretive atmosphere, resulting in deterrent force shocking people. In this way, it will fully exhibit the will and physical strength of the rulers.
Ancient humans tended to attribute all natural or social disasters to demons doing mischief. Exorcising the demons and driving out the ghosts and goblins was one of the most import primitive activities. This activity is usually called warding off the evil spirits. Take Si Mu Wu Fang Ding, a piece of china bronze sculpture statue, for an example, a master piece of late Shang, it is composed of fine decorative moiré foil embossed with Animal Mask-style. The overall appearance is a symmetrical grim of ferocious beast face signifying the solemn and dignify of royal majesty.
China’s Bronze Age came into being about two thousand years BC and lasted through the Spring and Autumn period, undergoing 15 centuries. To the late Shang and early Western Zhou Dynasty, the technology of bronze smelting and casting has reached a peak. The progress of chinese bronze sculpture statue is consistent with the development of the slave society of China. It arises with the emergence of slavery society and also changes with the disintegration of slavery society. It is the most direct manifestation of culture of the slavery society in China.
The china bronze sculpture in Shang Dynasty were decorated with imaginary and mysterious beast. This custom is closely linked with the social conventions in Shang that the human at that time adored gods and spirits. The idea is to be accessible to spirits and ghosts by the beast face and pray for the protection from them. In particular, at the late Shang Dynasty, the beast-like patterns had developed into various group-based beast dermatoglyphic patterns.
Shuangti long wen or two-tailed dragon centered on its head with the body extending into two sides. This pattern takes on a banding look, so its body can have sufficient room to fully spread the body which is actually a symmetric figure. This pattern is often decorated on the mouth edge of fang yi (方彝)or fang ding, a sort of wine bronze statue.
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