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A LARGE PAINTED POTTERY JAR, NEOLITHIC PERIOD, MAJIAYAO CULTURE
奥地利
09月11日 下午5点 开拍
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Description

A LARGE PAINTED POTTERY JAR, NEOLITHIC PERIOD, MAJIAYAO CULTURE
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

Published: Jean-Paul Desroches (ed.) et al, Two Americans in Paris: A Quest for Asian Art, Paris, 2016, p. 160, no. 268.

Exhibited:
1. Pointe-à-Callière Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Montréal, 17 November 2016-19 March 2017.
2. Kimbell Art Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Fort Worth, Texas, 4 March-19 August 2018.

China, Machang type, late 3rd millennium BC. The compressed globular jar tapering towards the flat base, surmounted by a short waisted neck with an everted rim, flanked by two small loop handles. The shoulders and neck of the vessel boldly painted in black and burgundy slips with designs of stylized anthropomorphic figures, their heads represented by medallions filled with crosshatched patterns, framed by similarly painted geometric bands.

Provenance: The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France. Acquired between circa 1965-2012.
Condition: Very good condition with expected old wear, firing irregularities, traces of weathering, light surface scratches, few minor chips, some dimples, and small areas of soil encrustation.

Weight: 4,576 g
Dimensions: Height 40.3 cm

The Majiayao culture was a group of smaller neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region of eastern Gansu, Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from c. 3300 to 2000 BC and marks the first time in history that the upper Yellow River region was widely occupied by agricultural settlements. It is famous for its painted pottery, which is regarded as a peak of pottery manufacturing at that time.

Large and small two-handled jars, pitchers, bowls, and beakers are the most common forms produced in the Machang phase of the Majiayao culture. Decorative motifs on Machang-period wares are largely geometric and include curvilinear patterns and cross-hatching, lozenges, triangles, circles, and squares in an endless array of combinations. The zoomorphic figure in the center of this jar is one of the more distinctive images in the Machang vocabulary. Four limbs, bent in the center, are attached to a long torso, capped by a small head. Feathers or some other type of tufting are found at the end of the upper limbs and at the joints of all four appendages. These enigmatic motifs are variously interpreted: they are sometimes explained as abstract representations of natural creatures such as frogs; other hypotheses suggest that they are symbolic of either the costume worn by a shaman or the transformation he undergoes during rituals.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related Majiayao earthenware broad-shouldered jar with bichrome slip-painted decoration, 41.2 cm high, in the Harvard Art Museums, object number 2006.170.42. Compare a closely related Majiayao jar with painted decoration of “frog pattern”, dated c. 2300-2000 BC, 41.9 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 2015.500.7.9. Compare a closely related Majiayao earthenware vessel with painted frog patterns, 31.5 cm high, excavated from a Machang site in Liuwan, Ledu, Qinghai province, and illustrated in: Yang Xiaoneng, Chinese Archaeology: New Perspectives on China’s Ancient Past in the Twentieth Century, vol. 2, London, p. 75, fig. 28b.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 22 September 2023, lot 1046
Price: USD 10,080 or approx. EUR 9,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large painted pottery jar, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, Machang type, late 3rd millennium BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and motifs. Note the size (35 cm).

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价格信息

拍品估价:1,500 - 3,000 欧元 起拍价格:800 欧元  买家佣金: 35.00%

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