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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.452
Title
Jade Openwork Configuration of Animals and Birds
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
475 BCE - 221 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204773

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown and cream-colored, partly decomposed nephrite
Dimensions
3.3 x 6.1 x 0.4 cm (1 5/16 x 2 3/8 x 3/16 in.)
19 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. 502 by Max Loehr:

502 Openwork Configuration of Animal and Birds
Brown and cream-colored, partly decomposed jade plaque. The design is symmetrical and both sides are identical. A large feline(?) head forms the center of a configuration in which all parts are continuous. What appear to be two body bands of the large animal read simultaneously as the tails of two dragons whose heads mark the upper corners of the plaque. The sinuous bodies of these two dragons continue downward into the similarly curved bodies of two birds whose heads lie upside down along the lower edge. The birds’ plumes form brackets to the large head in the middle. The body bands are treated homogeneously: they are slightly convex, bounded by marginal grooves and textured only by fine median lines and by paired transverse curves set at widely spaced intervals; the only differentiation of texture appears in the sparsely applied scale motif on the birds’ necks. Late Eastern Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.452
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. 502, p. 340

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