Ritual Cooking Vessel

Original Language TitleLi-ting

Original Language TitleLi-ding

CultureChinese

Datelate 12th-early 11th century B.C.E.

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 8 × 6 inches (20.32 × 15.24 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-250

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThree legged bronze vessel, body shaped in three lobes tapering to the legs. Large T'ao T'ieh mask on each of the three lobes with horns in high relief. Ku along body of the vessel above each leg. Two handles on rim. No inscription. One leg has old restoration.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Chinese bronzes in American collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. October 13-November 27, 1938.

Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, February 18-December 2, 1939. Pomona College, Claremont, CA, 1947. Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, OK, 1948.

Gallery Label

This vessel combines elements of two distinct tripods types, the lobed body of the li and the solid column legs of the ding. A mask with ibex horns is centered over each leg, and smaller S-shaped dragons fill the band below the mouth. Handles allowed the vessel to be lifted off a fire.

Provenance

Ni, Beijing, China;

Purchased through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

Published References

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), 12 (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), 274 (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), 290, pl. 21 (repro.).

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