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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.592
Title
Ornate Jade Disk
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk
Date
206 BCE - 9 CE (?)
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204293

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gray-green translucent nephrite with brown markings and flaws
Dimensions
0.6 x 16.5 cm (1/4 x 6 1/2 in.)
unspecified: 301 g

Published Text

Catalogue
Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Authors
Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
Publisher
Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975)

Catalogue entry no. 530 by Max Loehr:

530 Ornate Disk
Gray-green translucent jade with brown markings and flaws (to remove them would have led to an excessive thinning of the original slab). The disk shows two distinct zones of design, identical on both sides. The outer, wider zone is filled with four animal faces reminiscent of bucraniums; their large, staring eyes are partly outlined by a broad nose, terminated by a muzzle that spirals inward. The contours of the nose continue upward into convolute horns. Between the horns issue broad bands, each divided down the middle by an incised line and at regular intervals marked by slightly curved double striae. The bands bifurcate symmetrically to the left and right, bending down and going upward again. Where they bend, these bands are crossed by two shorter bands of a wing-like character. The much narrower inner zone is decorated with hexagons in relief, marked with engraved spirals. The two zones are separated by a circle striated like a rope. In contrast to the painstaking finish of the pieces listed before (Nos. 526, 527, 528, 529), the execution of this disk is almost rude. Western Han(?).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.592
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 530, p. 367

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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