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Ritual Wine Vessel (jia)

CultureChinese
Date12th-11th century B.C.E.
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches (34.29 × 21.59 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number34-66
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 232
Collections
DescriptionLarge four-legged bronze with original lid, animal on lid.Exhibition History

Chinese Bronzes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1934, no. 19.

Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 13 - November 27, 1938.

Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, February 18 - December 2, 1939.

Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Asia House Gallery, New York, October 10 - December 15, 1968.

Gallery Label
This is a rectangular version of the vessel type displayed in the case to your right. The monster mask on the main panel features bulging eyes, C-shaped horns, ears and gaping jaws with clearly delineated fangs. On either side of the mask is a dragon with bird beak standing on its nose. The treatment of the relief is particularly elaborate, including both flat and multilayered surfaces, for instance on the horns.
Provenance

With Dr. Otto Burchard, Beijing, China;

Purchased from Burchard, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.

Published References

Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art 1935 -1936, 3rd ed., no. 232 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935), Ill (repro.).

Pacific Cultures / Department of Fine Arts, Division of Pacific Cultures, cat. no. 5 (San Francisco: Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939), 36 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 103, fig. 1 (repro.).

Jung Keng, “Bronzes of Shang and Chou,” vol. II, No. 684 (Peiping: I941), 243, fig. 460 (repro.).

Florance Waterbury, Early Chinese symbols and literature: vestiges and speculations, with particular reference to the ritual bronzes of the Shang dynasty (New York city: E. Weybe, 1942), pls. 73, pls. 45 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 129 (repro.).

Von Martin Feddersen, Chinesisches Kunstgewerbe: ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber (Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1955), 124, ill (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 170 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, An Introduction to Chinese Art (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1961), pl. 10 (repro.).

Max Loehr, et al., Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, no.32 (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Asia Society, 1968), pl. 81 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 11 (repro.).

John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig, East Asia: tradition and transformation (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1973), pl. 8 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 273 (repro.).

Orientations, Special issue for the Chinese art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. 39, no. 8 (November/December 2008), 61, fig. 9 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, Arts of China, 5th rev. ed., (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) 64, fig. 46 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 289, 17 (repro.).
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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