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Ritual Cooking Vessel

Original Language TitleCh'eng-wang fang-ting
Original Language TitleFang ding
CultureChinese
Datelate 11th century B.C.E.
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 11 × 6 × 7 1/4 inches (27.94 × 15.24 × 18.42 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number41-33
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 232
Collections
DescriptionResting on four legs, decorated at the top with animal heads with protruding horns, the body of the vessel is flanged at the four corners and the middle of each side. Bordering the top of each side are two conventionalized dragons with a meander pattern background, below which is a fluted panel framed by pointed bosses. Two handles with superimposed horned dragons. Greyish green patina. A magnificent example of the sculptural treatmnet of a ceremonial bronze.Exhibition History

An Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes, C. T. Loo & Co., New York, 1939.

Cultural Exhibition of Yin and Chou, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Takashimaya Department Store, Japan, November 25 – December 7, 1958.

The Arts of Man: A Selection from Ancient to Modern Times, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, October 6 through December 31, 1962.

Gallery Label
This ding is famous for the short inscription cast on its interior, which states that it was made to venerate King Cheng, the second ruler of the Zhou dynasty. It was probably cast shortly after his death and exemplifies well the new Zhou style, in which a profusion of high-relief decorative elements dominates the vessel shape.
Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., stock no. 86304, by March 1939-1941;

Purchased from C. T. Loo & Co. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1941.



Published References

Art Digest, vol. 14 (New York: January 15, 1939), 11, Ill (repro.).

Leroy J. Davidson, C.T. Loo, An Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes, exh. cat., no. 17 (New York: C. T. Loo, 1939), pl. 111 (repro.).

“The Cauldron of King Ch’eng of Chou,” GAZETTE desBEAUX ARTS, vol. 23 (March 1943), 182, fig. 2 (repro.).

Phyllis Ackerman et al., Ritual Bronzes of Ancient China (New York: The Dryden press, 1945), pl. 13 (repro.).

Ludwig Bachhofer, A Short History of Chinese Art (New York: Pantheon, 1946), 35, fig. 17 (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.).

 “Cultural exhibition of Yin and Chou” (Tokyo, Japan: November 25 – December 7, 1958), 18 (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), 171 (repro.).

John Lunsford, Benetta Thompson Brudno et al., The Arts of Man: A Selection From Ancient to Modern Times; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1962, October 6 through December 31, exh. cat., no. 25 (Dallas: Museum, 1962), 23, no. 25, Ill (repro.)

William Y. Willetts, Foundations of Chinese Art from Neolithic Pottery to Modern Architecture. 322 Illus. In Colour and Black and White, 91 Maps, and Line Drawings (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), pl. 59 (repro.).

Marco Bussagli, Bronzi Cinese (Milano, 1966), 71, pl.31 (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), 13 (repro.).

Marc F. Wilson, “Form and Design: Chinese Archaic Bronzes and Jades” Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 50, 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), 275 (repro.).

Sherman E. Lee, Naomi Noble Richard, ed., A History of Far Eastern Art, 5th ed., (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), 40, fig. 29 (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), 292, pl. 29 (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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