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Zoomorphic Spiral

CultureChinese
Date9th century B.C.E.
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 9 1/4 inches (34.29 × 23.5 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number32-44
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 232
Collections
DescriptionBronze pole end or finial in the form of a coiled dragon with two spikes on its back and its sides decorated with stylized geometric designs.Exhibition History

Exhibition of Chinese Art: the Art gallery, Mills College, Oakland, California, October 12 - November 25, 1934.

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

Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, February 18-December 2, 1939.
Gallery Label
This remarkable object takes the form of a dragon coiled around its head, its lolling tongue completing the spiral. The head is embellished with openwork horns in the form of smaller dragons. Its function remains unclear; it is possibly a cap for a chariot pole, but, weighing almost 20 pounds, it is much larger and heavier than other surviving examples. It seems more likely that it was an architectural element, perhaps connected with an ancestral temple.

Provenance

Mr. Pai Teh Jen, Beijing, China;

Purchased from Mr. Pai Teh Jen through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 101 (repro.).

Salmony, Exhibition of Chinese Art: the Art Gallery, Mills College, October 12 to November 25, 1934, no. 58 (Oakland, California: Mills College, 1934), Pl. 9, Illus (repro.).

Alan Priest, Chinese bronzes of the Shang (1766-1122 B.C.) through the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-906): an exhibition lent by American collectors and museums and shown in gallery D6 from October 19 through November 27 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1938), no. 144, illus (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), 104, fig. 2 (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), 130 (repro.).

Leigh Ashton & Basil Gray, Chinese Art, 1st American ed., (New York: Beechhurst, 1953) (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.).

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), 14 (repro.).

C. Guillen-Nunez, “Kwong Yeu Ting, Hong Kong Artist,” Arts of Asia (Hong Kong, September – October 1979), 140, illus (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 149, pl. 79 (repro.).

Denise Lardner Carmody, John Tully Carmody, Ways to the Center: An Introduction to World Religions, 3rd ed., (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing, 1989), 167, fig. 21 (repro.).

Warren I. Cohen, East Asian art and American Culture: a Study in International Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) (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), 276 (repro.).

Orientations, Special issue for the Chinese art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. 39, no. 8 (November/December 2008), 64, fig. 1 (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), 293, pl. 32 (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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