Famous bronze statue of Shang Dynasty

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You with Pattern of Tiger Eating A Man is one of the most famous bronze sculptures of the late Shang Dynasty. It is unearthed in Hunan. There were originally two such copies. The other one is kept in Paris, France. This artwork deeply impresses the people with the tiger eats a man with ferocious features. Through careful watch, people can fifi nd that the big mouth of the tiger doesn’t close, and the man looks unafraid. The tiger and the man seem to hug intimately. In fact, the man in tiger mouth is a powerful wizard. The tiger is a mythological beast. Both keep friendly relationship. This art works martly setsup three supporting points with rear leg and tail of the tiger to form solid and powerful shape. Whole-body patterns of dragon, phoenix and cloud make this artwork mysterious.

Tiger head

Visual focus of this artwork is opening mouth of tiger and man head inside. Tiger head is round with squareness, which is powerful. Canine and bucktooth cross to overawe the people, and reflect “fiercelooking beauty”. Various patterns also add grand tints of the beast.

Bronzeware

Bronze is a kind of alloy fusing copper, tin, lead, nickel and other chemical elements. Production and living vessels cast with bronze are called as “bronzeware”. Ancient bronzeware boast high technical level an dartisticlevel . They present various shapes, such as ding, zun, you and jue. Hieroglyphic vessels are also available.

The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age refers to the era during which people widely used bronzeware in production and daily life. It ranged between the Stone Age and the Iron Age. In China, The Bronze Age included the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period.

You

You is a type of winecontaining bronzeware, which was popular in the Shang Dynasty and the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It features oval mouth, deep abdomen, round foot, lid and handle. It has many shapes . Animal-shaped you sees undulating surface decoration.

Wizard

Wizard was special figure at early stages of primitive society and civil society. They often took dance, spell, augur, observation of astrology and other forms to forecast good or bad fortune, cure disease, decide on the war and launch other activities.