Lamp in Form of a Ram

CultureChinese

DateWestern Han dynasty (206 B.C.E-9 C.E.)

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 3 7/8 × 2 7/8 × 5 5/8 inches (9.84 × 7.3 × 14.29 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-218

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionLamp in the form of a recumbent ram with large curved horns. Hollow back has a hinged cover. Engraved bronze, green patina.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Burlington House, London, November 28, 1935 – March 7^th, 1936, no. 35.

Denver Art Museum, Denver, March 1937.

Various Phases of Art in the Han Dynasty, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, March 10–May 1, 1941.

Unearthing China’s Past, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, November 15, 1973–February 15, 1974, cat. 46.

Gallery Label

The Chinese word for ram is a near homonym for "auspicious." Rams were therefore frequently depicted in Han Dynasty art. The back of the ram flips over his head to form a container for the lamp oil. The wick probably extended towards the rear, so that the open body of the vessel would act as an ashtray.

Provenance

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

Published References

Burlington House, International Exhibition of Chinese Art, exh. cat. (London: Burlington House, 1935), no. 35 (repro.).

Maude Rex Allen, “Early Chinese Lamps”, Oriental Art, vol. 2, no. 4 (1950) 139, fig. 12 (repro.).

Martin Feddersen, Chinesisches Kunstgewerbe (Braunschweig, Germany: Kinkhardt & Bienmann, 1955), 141 (repro.).

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Unearthing China’s Past, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1974), 108, no. 46 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 19 (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), 281 (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), 302, cat. 61 (repro.).

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