Bronze Bull’s Head

The bull’s head has wide open eyes, raised horns and ears, a protruded snout without mouth and nostrils, and a hollowed neck. The pattern and the eyes were cut in intaglio, making the head vivid and highly decorative. Such bull’s heads were often used as ornaments on large bronze containers or handled You-vessels from the Shang and western Zhou dynasties. During that period the most common large bronzes in Chengdu plain were Zun and Lei, both wine vessels.