A pair of jade rams, Late Shang dynasty | 商晚期　玉羊一對

Teng Shu-p’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, cat. no. 80.

Tiffany Chen, Selected Works of Jade, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2003, pl. 48.

Tsai Ching-Liang, Jades of Shang Dynasty, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2010, pl. 188.

Ching Wan Society Thirtieth Anniversary Catalogue, vol. 2: Objects of vertu, Taipei, 2025, p. 19 (top).

Stoutly carved in the round from columnar blocks of jade, this charming pair of rams exemplifies the geometric abstraction characteristic of the Late Shang dynasty. The artisan masterfully utilised straight, deep cuts to separate the sturdy legs and delineate the head, while softening the inherently rigid rectangular blocks with subtly convex curves to imbue the animals with a plump, rounded volume. Simple yet expressive round eyes and elegantly curving horns capture their endearing spirit.

Stylistically, these jade rams are closely related to the primitive yet highly sophisticated Shang artistic style developed at the dawn of China's civilisation. Much like the celebrated Shang marble carvings, such as the exceptional recumbent frog formerly in the Richard Bull Collection, see Alfred Salmony, 'A pre-Anyang Marble Sculpture', Artibus Asiae, vol. 20, no. 4, 1957, pp. 239-40). The present pair of rams are brilliantly expressed in a minimalist aesthetic. They are skilfully carved in a gentle geometric manner that prioritises the stylised essence of the animal over naturalistic anatomical details.

For other examples of this distinctive minimalist Shang aesthetic, compare two rare marble frogs of similar stylised form: one exhibited in Animals in Chinese Art, Century Club, New York, 1955, and at the Museum for East-Asian Arts, Cologne, 1978-9, later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2022, lot 3608; and another sold in our New York rooms, 19th September 2023, lot 219.

展覽

鄧淑蘋，《羣玉別藏續集》，故宮博物院，台北，1999年，編號80

出版

陳臻儀，《古玉選粹》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2003年，圖版48

蔡慶良，《商代玉器》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2010年，圖版188

《清翫雅集卅周年慶收藏圖錄》，冊2：珍玩，台北，2025年，頁19（上）

此對玉羊圓雕而成，以長柱形玉料製作，充分展現商代晚期玉雕獨特的幾何抽象風格。匠人巧用直線切割區隔出短粗的四肢與頭胸，並將身軀琢磨成微凸弧面，巧妙化解了方柱玉料的生硬，賦予玉羊飽滿圓潤的量感。羊首雕琢簡練，圓眼炯炯有神，雙角彎轉收尖，盡顯憨態可掬的神韻。

在風格上，此對玉羊與華夏文明初期古樸卻又高度成熟的商代藝術風格一脈相承。這種極簡的審美意趣在同時期珍罕的大理石雕塑上亦有體現，如著名的 Richard Bull 舊藏大理石蛙，見Alfred Salmony，〈A pre-Anyang Marble Sculpture〉，《Artibus Asiae》，卷20，第4期，1957年，頁239-40）。本品與之相似，皆以溫和的幾何線條與極簡主義手法，精準表現出動物的形態特徵，而非拘泥於寫實的解剖結構。

比較兩件風格相近的極簡主義商代大理石蛙：其一曾展於紐約世紀俱樂部《Animals in Chinese Art》，1955年，以及科隆東亞藝術博物館，1978至1979年，後售於香港蘇富比2022年10月9日，編號3608；另一例售於紐約蘇富比2023年9月19日，編號219。