Ritual Food Vessel
Original Language TitleKuei
Original Language TitleGui
CultureChinese
DateWestern Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.E.)
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 6 × 9 5/8 × 7 1/4 inches (15.24 × 24.45 × 18.42 cm)
Credit LineGift of Milton McGreevy
Object numberF77-41/1
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 232
Collections
Gallery LabelThe gui was used for offering grain. Although gui were made during the Shang dynasty, they became much more important during Western Zhou and reflect an overall ritual shift from wine to food vessels. Indeed, the Zhou criticized the Shang for having been too bibulous. The coiled dragons on the main panels of this vessel possess ridged bodies and long snouts reminiscent of elephant trunks.
C.T. Loo;
Milton W. McGreevy (1903-1980), ca. 1940s – 1977;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1977.
The Nelson Gallery & Atkins Museum Bulletin, vol. v, (Kansas City: Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, November 1978), 26, no. 4 (repro.).
Cp., Kuei, ‘Shantung’ Sale, lot no. 19, Sotheby (London, Tuesday, April 15, 1980) (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.).
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. 28 (repro.).
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