A rare and exceptional archaic marble sculpture of a recumbent frog, Shang dynasty | 商 大理石蛙

New York Private Collection.

Offered at Sotheby's New York, 19th November 1982, lot 88.

紐約私人收藏

上拍於紐約蘇富比1982年11月19日，編號88

Virtue of Simplicity

This marble sculpture is an outstanding ancient masterpiece that represents the primitive yet highly sophisticated Shang artistic style developed at the dawn of China's civilization. The stone block has been skillfully carved in a gentle geometric manner to represent a stylized frog, which is brilliantly expressed in a minimalist aesthetic, with powerful back legs carefully shaped in shallow flat relief with a central groove and the pupils of the eyes conveyed merely by small, circular indentations set in squared platform sockets extending to the wide mouth. 

There are only two other known marble frog carvings of this size and form from the Shang dynasty. One from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bull, was sold in these rooms, 6th December 1983, lot 244 (fig. 1); and the other was first sold by Eskenazi Ltd., London in 1991 and recently sold again in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2022, lot 3608 (fig. 2).

The frog from the Richard Bull Collection is illustrated in Alfred Salmony, 'A pre-Anyang Marble Sculpture', Artibus Asiae, vol. XX, no. 4, 1957, pp 239-40, where the author argues convincingly that it predates other carved stone animals from Anyang, which are more naturalistic in their modelling, and are incised with geometric and figure motifs. He also concluded that the combination of large wings and toad-like body makes it difficult to assign the animal to any particular species. Richard Bull himself referred to the frog as one of the favorites in his collection, describing it as a 'pre-Anyang marble frog that would have delighted Brancusi'.

Compare a group of marble tigers, dragons and a buffalo recovered from the tomb of Fu Hao in 1976, illustrated in King Wu Ding and Lady Hao: Art and Culture of the Late Shang Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. IV-3; and a cicada illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pl. 176:1. Close analysis of the carvings from Fu Hao's tomb, that dates to circa 1200 BC in the late Shang period, corroborates Salmony's analysis of the earlier date of the Richard Bull frog, as the Fu Hao carvings are indeed less stylized, and are incised with anatomical and geometric details.

Shang dynasty marble carvings are extremely rare, much more so than other ritual works of art and vessels created from bronze, jade, bone or ivory. Other recorded examples of Shang marble include a buffalo rendered in a very similar minimalist style, exhibited in A Decade of Discovery, Freer Gallery of Art (now renamed to National Museum of Asian Art), Washington, D.C., 1979, cat. no. 1; a marble bear now in the Seattle Art Museum, illustrated in Richard E. Fuller, Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works From The Permanent Collections, 1951, fig. I; a small group of animal carvings in the collection of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, which were excavated from tomb 1500 at Xibeigang, Anyang, including a pair of turtles published in Paul Pelliot, 'The Royal Tombs of An-Yang', Studies in Chinese Art and Some Indian Influences, London, 1938, pp 51-9, pl. VII, fig. 16.

Only a very small number of Shang marble figures has been recorded in private collections, including a marble buffalo and a ram from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick, illustrated in the Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 268A and Na Zhiliang, Guyu jiancai [A catalogue of ancient jades], Taipei, 1980, pl. 49, respectively; a marble elephant from the Guennol Collection, illustrated by Ida Ely Rubin, ed., The Guennol Collection, vol. 1, New York, 1975, pp 259-60; and a marble water buffalo catalogued as late Shang, originally acquired from Robert H. Ellsworth in 1997, sold at Christie's New York, 17th September 2010, lot 1004, and again 21st March 2013, lot 1258.

遺石初暉

本品大理石蛙，兼具上古時期之極簡與神秘，足見商代獨特且成熟的美學文化，僅以寥寥數刀，即於大理石材上精準表現出了動物的形象，淺浮雕搭配陰刻線條，力量感十足，審美極致，屬於存世極罕的一類上古絕品。

現知相類商代蛙形大理石雕僅見有二：其一出自Richard Bull 伉儷舊藏，1983年12月6日售於紐約蘇富比，編號244（圖一）；其二於1991年由倫敦埃斯卡納齊售出，近時售於香港蘇富比2022年10月9日，編號3608（圖二）。

Richard Bull 伉儷舊藏之蛙例刊於 Alfred Salmony，〈A pre-Anyang Marble Sculpture〉，《Artibus Asiae》，卷20，期4，1957年，頁239至240。作者論及該石蛙應比安陽時期所見石雕更早，因安陽風格更加寫實，並常見細刻幾何或獸形紋飾；該石雕類蛙，身軀搭配大形羽翼，無法明確歸類其屬。藏家 Bull 本人曾述，此蛙形石雕乃其眾多藏品中之最愛，是「布朗庫西也會喜歡的前安陽時期大理石蛙」。

參考一組大理石虎、龍、牛，1976年婦好墓出土，展於《商王武丁與后婦好：殷商盛世文化藝術特展》，國立故宮博物院，台北，2012年，編號 IV-3；另見一石蟬，載於《殷墟婦好墓》，北京，1980年，圖版176:1。細觀婦好墓所出石雕例，並對比前述 Salmony 論述之風格分析，婦好作例確實更加寫實，並刻劃幾何紋飾與動物結構細節，應晚於本類石蛙。

與青銅、玉、骨、牙製器品相比，商代大理石雕極為稀少。其他商代大理石雕作例包括一石牛，極簡風格與本品非常相近，展於《A Decade of Discovery》，弗瑞爾美術館（今改名為國立亞洲藝術博物館），華盛頓，1979年，編號1；亦見一石熊例，現藏西雅圖藝術博物館，錄 Richard E. Fuller，《Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works From The Permanent Collections》，1951年，圖I；再見台北中央研究院史語所收藏一小組商代大理石雕動物，於安陽西北岡1500號墓出土，其中包括一對石龜，出版於伯希和，〈The Royal Tombs of An-Yang〉，《Studies in Chinese Art and Some Indian Influences》，倫敦，1938年，頁51至59，圖版VII，圖16。

商代大理石雕曾見於私人收藏者僅數例，包括一石牛及石羊，倫敦 Sedgwick 伉儷珍藏，分別見於《中國藝術國際展覽會》，英國皇家藝術學院，倫敦，1935年，編號268A及那志良，《古玉鑑裁》，台北，1980年，圖版49；亦見一石象，葛諾收藏，載於 Ida Ely Rubin 編，《The Guennol Collection》，卷1，紐約，1975年，頁259至260；再見一商末石牛例，1997年由安思遠售出，2010年9月17日售於紐約佳士得，編號1004，後再次售出，2013年3月21日，編號1258。