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A RARE GILT-JADE FIGURE OF A BEAR, HAN DYNASTY
奥地利
2025年10月16日 开拍
拍品描述
Expert's note: The surface retains extensive layers of pigments and gilding, characteristic of ancient decorative techniques. In a few small areas, the coating—composed of barium sulfate with silicate minerals, iron and potassium chlorides, copper, and traces of gold and brass—has been partially removed with modern tools to reveal the jade beneath. Microscopic steel shavings confirm this surface intervention in the last 100 years, though the jade core remains untouched and well preserved.China, 206 BC-220 AD. Finely carved as a plump bear seated on its haunches in a moment of repose as it scratches a spot immediately behind its right ear with its right forepaw. At peace with itself and with the world, the bear appears to be enjoying the moment. The powerful animal with the mouth open revealing sharp teeth, its rotund body with engorged mammary glands, neatly detailed with scroll designs.The stone of a deep celadon tone and richly decorated with thick, ancient gilding.Provenance: From the Estate of Edith and Joel Frankel, New York. E & J Frankel was a major New York gallery specializing in Asian Art since 1967. Run by Edith (1939-2012) and Joel Frankel (1937-2018), it was one of the oldest galleries in the United States focusing exclusively on Asian art. Leaders in their field, the Frankels traveled the world in search of Asian art treasures and educated the general public about their shared passion. Their gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City became a local institution, best known for its regular schedule of innovative thematic exhibitions, and frequently visited by the biggest names in the field, such as Eskenazi, Ellsworth, Junkunc, and the Alsdorfs.Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Expected wear, signs of weathering, encrustations, corrosion, losses to gilt. Weight: 257.8 g Dimensions: Height 7.6 cmThe bear has been a popular totemic emblem in China since ancient times. China's foundation myths hold that the legendary Yellow Emperor, or Huang Di, early on lived with his tribe in the northwest, presumably in modern Shanxi province, but then later migrated to Zhuolu, in present-day Hebei province, where he became a farmer and tamed six different types of ferocious beasts, including the bear, or xiong, with which the Yellow Emperor ever since has been linked. According to legend, Gun—said to have been the great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the father of Yu the Great, or Da Yu—stole a special soil with which he planned to build dikes in an attempt to control the Yellow River's constantly recurring and very devastating floods; he failed in his mission, however, and, as punishment for his theft, he was killed by Zhurong, the God of Fire. Gun's corpse turned into a yellow bear, or huangxiong, and jumped into a pool; several years later, a golden bear—alternatively said to be a golden dragon—emerged from the corpse's stomach and ascended into heaven, where the Yellow Emperor instructed it to complete its father's work in taming the Yellow River's waters. That bear turned out to be none other than Da Yu, who, according to popular belief, heroically controlled the floods and became the mythological forefather of China's Xia dynasty. Thus, even if its exact symbolism has never explicitly been stated, the bear has been prominently associated with legendary rulers and national foundation myths since earliest times. From the Han dynasty onward, and probably even much earlier, bears have been linked with military prowess, shamanism, and immortality. As a corollary, it might be noted that the words for “bear” and “virility” are exact homonyms, not only in modern Mandarin Chinese, in which both are pronounced xiong, but also in ancient Chinese, a connection that likely speaks for itself in terms of symbolism. Bears were depicted in Chinese art at least as early as the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-c. 1050 BC), as evinced by three jade bears excavated in 1976 from the tomb of Lady Fu Hao (died c. 1200 BC), Anyang, Henan province, and by a jade bear in the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection at the Harvard Art Museums, object number 1943.50.308.

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

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