In museums, we often see a variety of bronzes, with a wide variety of shapes. According to its function, it is divided into wine vessels, food utensils, water utensils, musical instruments, weapons, agricultural tools and tools, chariots and horses, etc.
There are many subdivisions of just one type of bronzes. For example, weapons include swords, swords, halberds, daggers, arrows, etc. There are household utensils, such as 鬲 (lì), 甗 (yǎn), 瓿 (bù), 簋 (guǐ), jue, 觚 (gū), 斝 (jiǎ), 罍 (léi), and so on.
Combined with the bronze cultural relics in the museum, the common ornamentation of bronze ware is introduced. Ornamentation, as the name suggests, is the decorative pattern on bronzes, and the ornamentation of bronzes of different eras is also different. The Shang and Zhou dynasties were a period of great development of bronze ware, with rich types and various ornaments, integrating various techniques such as round carving, relief carving, and openwork carving, which were extremely gorgeous.
1. Animal face pattern
The animal face pattern is the most common pattern in the bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and was formerly known as the "gluttonous pattern". The animal face pattern on bronze ware is generally composed of a beast head with symmetrical eyes, nose, horns, etc., and a body distributed on both sides of the beast's head.
Net diagram, a typical animal face pattern
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the last stage in the development of bronze ornamentation. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the royal power fell, the etiquette collapsed, and the bronze craftsmanship level and ornamentation cast by the vassal states themselves had their own characteristics. The bronze mustache of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in the collection is decorated with animal face patterns, with oval eyes, ears, and deformed bodies, and the overall ornamental characteristics are not very obvious, and they are integrated with the plagiarism pattern. The plagiarism pattern is composed of curly, slender stripes, and is also one of the common ornaments in bronzes.
Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze mustache, Zhucheng Museum collection
Animal face patterns prevailed in the late Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, and were generally used as the main body ornament, distributed on the abdomen or below the neck of the utensils. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the animal face pattern began to decline, from the main body decoration to the secondary decoration, appearing in the ears, feet and other parts of the utensils. In the picture below, the three dimensions of the utensils are decorated with animal face patterns, and the characteristics of double eyes and double horned nose are obvious. Different from the hideous expressions of the early animal face patterns, the ornamentation of this artifact has a touch of cuteness and cuteness.
Beast face pattern, Zhucheng Museum collection
Second, the dragon pattern
In the bronze ornamentation, the dragon pattern is one of the most changeable image ornaments, including the dragon pattern, the dragon pattern, the dragon pattern, the dragon pattern, the Gu dragon pattern, the double-headed dragon pattern, the cockroach pattern and so on. The basic characteristics of the dragon pattern are that the mouth has valgus lips, the head has horns, and the body is curved like a snake.
Kui dragon pattern, Zhucheng Museum collection
Kui dragon pattern is a kind of side dragon pattern, is one of the original dragon pattern images, the later Gu dragon pattern, Jiaolong pattern, Pan claw pattern are all developed from the Kui dragon pattern, based on the Kui dragon pattern for deformation and combination. This ornament is to show the side image of the dragon, which has a variety of images such as one-legged, two-legged and multi-legged. There are also a variety of ornaments on the body, including cloud and thunder patterns, scale patterns and other ornaments.
Double-headed dragon pattern, Zhucheng Museum collection
The dragon pattern is also a combination of the double-headed dragon pattern, which is collected by the Zhucheng Museum
3. Other animal patterns
Bronze ornaments not only have a variety of imaginary beasts, such as gluttony, dragons, phoenixes, etc., but also common animal ornaments in nature, such as birds, sheep, cows, snakes, cicadas, etc.
Spring and Autumn bronze iron, Zhucheng Museum collection
The bronze hammer is an attachment mounted on the end of the wooden handle of a long-handled bronze weapon. This piece of bronze iron, the surface is decorated with exquisite ornamentation, the upper part has geometric linear ornamentation, the middle main body is ornamented with sheep pattern, and the lower part has two groups of symmetrical deformed bird patterns, the decoration is meticulous, showing the exquisite level of bronze craftsmanship in the Spring and Autumn Period. The head of the sheep pattern has horns and bends backwards, the eyes are round, the body is decorated with linear ornamentation, and the tail is short and round, and the shape is both realistic and cute. The deformation of the bird pattern highlights the beak and eyes, and shows the static and dynamic beauty of the bird through the curve of the waves.
Collection of Zhucheng Museum
At the edge of the mouth of this utensil, the cow's head is used as a decoration, connecting the handle, the cow's head is rounded, and the double horns are round and blunt, as if the image of the cow baby in the anime, is it a little cute? It's in the exhibition hall, waiting for you to explore.
There are many kinds of bronze ornaments, and each ornament contains the pursuit of aesthetics and the exploration of the spiritual world of the ancient ancestors.
Note: The picture is from the archival materials in the 90s of the last century
Contributed by Zhou Yujun
(Source: Zhucheng Museum)