Ritual wine vessel (li)

This massive and atypical vessels are remarkable examples of the fascinating and still rather undefined period when Shang classicism and homogeneity were gradually giving way to Zhou exuberance, frequently marked by individual or regional experimentations.

The profile of the stocky li is unusually rounded, thus foreshadowing the downright squatness of later periods. The short, solid, slightly splayed feet are quite plain. The sturdy loop handles are only incised on the outside with a couple of lines running parallel to the contours. The constricted neck is encircled by a single but prominent bowstring. Conversely, the lobes are covered with a dense and profuse decor consisting of three dissolved taotie masks with flanged shields and "eyelids'' end, on either side, fanged descending dragons. All these motifs display incised details and stand in flat relief against a background of square meanders. Their generally spiky contours contrast vividly with the gently flowing silhouette of the vessel and reveal the lack of coherence which is typical of this transitional period.

The thirty-seven-character inscription incised on the inner face of the back wall of the vessel is too eroded to permit even a partial translation.