Ritual Bell

Original Language TitleYong zhong

CultureChinese

Datelate 6th-early 5th century B.C.E.

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 22 1/2 × 12 inches (57.15 × 30.48 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number41-34

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionDecorating the bell, except for four plain vertical strips are eight cartouches showing intertwined dragons looking backwards in profile separated by high-relief cartridgelike bosses without decoration. The shield at the bottom shows a mask with two bird-headed dragons wtih wings biting the horn of the mask. The tall pillarlike handle is encircled by three plain bands and three bands with S-shaped spiral designs, terminating in dragon heads in profile and supported by an animal in hight relief whose head and forepaws protrude. Green and blue patina.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Music was indispensable to the rituals of the Zhou Dynasty and large sets of bells were central to the ritual orchestras. The almond-shaped cross-section of ancient Chinese bells gives them their unique capacity to emit two different tones, depending on where they are struck. One tone is emitted when the bell is struck at the center of the lower panel and another, a major or minor third higher, is produced when the bell is struck near the side edge. Bells were cast in carillons (sets), designed to play complex melodies covering a range of up to five octaves.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., stock card no. 81926d, by March 1939-1941 [1];

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

NOTES:

[1] C. T. Loo/Frank Caro archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy of stock card in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

“Chinese Bell from the Age of Confucius,” Gazette des Beaux Arts, vol. 23 (June 1943), 377-80, fig. 1, 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.).

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), 173 (repro.).

Capolavori nei Secoli: enciclopedia di tutti le arti, di tutti i popoli, in tutti i tempi, no. 25 (Milano: Fratelli Fabbri, May 12, 1962), 21 (repro.).

Mario Bussagli, Bronzi Cinesi (Milano: 1966), 76, pl. 32 (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), 15 (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), 295, pl. 38 (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.