- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 2006.170.17
- Title
- Basin
- Other Titles
- Original Language Title: 馬家窯文化馬家窯類型 彩陶盆
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- vessel
- Date
- Majiayao phase, c. 3300-2650 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, c. 3300-2000 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/148479
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Earthenware with slip-painted decoration
- Dimensions
- H. 11 x Diam. 30.5 cm (4 5/16 x 12 in.)
- Provenance
- [The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 2002] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2002-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.
- Acquisition and Rights
-
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for the Acquisition of Oriental Art
- Accession Year
- 2006
- Object Number
- 2006.170.17
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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- Descriptions
-
- Description
- Circular basin with everted rim, slightly rounded sides, and lower body tapering inward to a flat base; buff earthenware lightly burnished and decorated with geometric designs painted in dark brown slip before firing; painted designs include concentric circles radiating outward from a single dot at the center with additional dots at regular intervals (on the interior), curved arcs and diagonal lines (on top of the rim), and wavy lines with feather-like flourishes (on the exterior). Majiayao culture, Majiayao type. From the upper Yellow River valley region; Gansu, Qinghai, or Ningxia province.
- Commentary
- Compare to:
(1) Basin with closely related painted designs of dots and concentric circles on the interior and wavy lines on the exterior excavated in 1978 from a Majiayao site in Hetaozhuang, Minhe county, Qinghai province, now in the Gansu Provincial Museum. See Zhongguo taoci quanji (The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics), vol. 1: Xinshiqi shidai (Neolithic period) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 2000), no. 49, pp. 94 and 263.
(2) Basin with similar painted designs excavated in 1976 from a Majiayao site in Chenjia, Shuidi, Linxia, Gansu, now in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Museum, Gansu. See Zhang Pengchuan, Zhongguo caitao tu pu [Handbook of Chinese Painted Pottery Illustrations] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1990), no. 158.
- Publication History
-
Transitory and Timeless: Ancient Chinese Pottery, auct. cat., The Chinese Porcelain Company (New York, 2002), no. 14, pp. 8 and 18-19
- Exhibition History
-
32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/14/2016 - 04/18/2016
Prehistoric Pottery from Northwest China, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/21/2016 - 08/14/2016
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu