If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Wine drinking goblet or beaker with a wide, trumpet-shaped mouth, narrow, banded waist, and flaring foot. The slender silhouette of the vessel suggests a date towards the end of the Late Shang period. The body is decorated with Tao-tie mask design, divided by the elaborate raised flanges. An inscription is found inside the flaring foot, presumably the name of the person that the vessel is dedicated or the clan emblem.
Subject Matter
elaborately decorated bronze wine goblet used in elite feasting or offing wine at ancetral rituals in early China. Often used as part of a set of ritual vessels and placed in the burials of the Shang elite. The surface is decorated with tao-tie design, and the foot is inscribed with the clam emblem or the elite person to whom the vessel is dedicated.
Label Copy
Metalworking emerged around 2000 BCE in China, with bronze vessels appearing around 1600 to 1500 BCE in what is known as the Shang dynasty (DATES). Shang society followed the Neolithic societies of Northern China and is the first historically recorded civilization of China. Chinese writing was invented by the Shang and the short inscriptions they left on oracle bones and bronze vessels, along with extensive excavations, show a complex and highly organized society headed by a king and his family, administered by officials, and serviced by craftsmen, slaves, and prisoners of war. The dynasty occupied three capitals in Henan province, the last of which, Anyang, (ca. 1300-1050 BCE) was located south of present-day Beijing. It was in Anyang that some of the world’s greatest masterpieces of bronze art came into being.
Gu or wine containers were usually found in tombs paired with the Jue, drinking cup, indicating a close, indicating a close connection between them in Shang ritual practice. As demonstrated by this pair of tall and slender gu, late Shang bronzes have the main zoomorphic motifs of the taotie mask and kui dragons raised above the background spirals.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Wine drinking goblet or beaker with a wide, trumpet-shaped mouth, narrow, banded waist, and flaring foot. The slender silhouette of the vessel suggests a date towards the end of the Late Shang period. The body is decorated with Tao-tie mask design, divided by the elaborate raised flanges. An inscription is found inside the flaring foot, presumably the name of the person that the vessel is dedicated.
Subject Matter
elaborately decorated bronze wine goblet used in elite feasting or offing wine at ancetral rituals in early China. Often used as part of a set of ritual vessels and placed in the burials of the Shang elite. The surface is decorated with tao-tie design, and the foot is inscribed with the clam emblem or the elite person to whom the vessel is dedicated.
Label Copy
The "ku" is a wine container which was paired with the "chüeh" drinking cup. It is thought that the shape was derived from the combination of two elongated containers, one resting on top of a base made from a second one turned upside down.
Metalworking emerged around 2000 BCE in China, with bronze vessels appearing around 1600 to 1500 BCE in what is known as the Shang dynasty (DATES). Shang society followed the Neolithic societies of Northern China and is the first historically recorded civilization of China. Chinese writing was invented by the Shang and the short inscriptions they left on oracle bones and bronze vessels, along with extensive excavations, show a complex and highly organized society headed by a king and his family, administered by officials, and serviced by craftsmen, slaves, and prisoners of war. The dynasty occupied three capitals in Henan province, the last of which, Anyang, (ca. 1300-1050 BCE) was located south of present-day Beijing. It was in Anyang that some of the world’s greatest masterpieces of bronze art came into being.
Gu or wine containers were usually found in tombs paired with the Jue, drinking cup, indicating a close, indicating a close connection between them in Shang ritual practice. As demonstrated by this pair of tall and slender gu, late Shang bronzes have the main zoomorphic motifs of the taotie mask and kui dragons raised above the background spirals.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Ceramic figure of a horse standing on a thin ceramic base, which a high-arched neck and a vertical head; large saddle with tassels; traces of orange-ochre, pink red and white pigments
Subject Matter
The elegant, long-legged horses of Ferghana and Sogdia (ancient Central Asian kingdom in the region of modern Uzbekistan) were essential to the success of the Han armies over northern nomads. It became common for Chinese military officials to adorn their tombs with sculpted figures of both imported horses and their red-haired, bearded Sogdian grooms.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
China’s trade with regions to its west began in earnest in the second half of the second century CE, spurred by the keen interest in foreign goods and culture by emperors of the late Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). One vital import was the fast horses of Ferghana and Sogdia (present-day Uzbekistan), essential to the success of the Han armies over chronic nomadic invaders from the north. Military officials adorned their tombs with sculpted figures of horses like this one and their red-haired, bearded Sogdian grooms, displayed adjacently.
This molded horse dates from the Eastern Wei, one of the short-lived six dynasties that ruled a decentralized China following the collapse of the Han Empire. The Wei was a tribe of Mongolian peoples whom the Chinese called Tuoba or Toba. The horse stands at arrested attention on a flat base and has the small head, thin legs, and long curved neck characteristic of the breed. His rump slumps under the weight of the richly embellished saddle clothes.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Standing male figure with bushy beard wearing a robe and black boots, decorated with red and black pigment.
Subject Matter
It was common for Chinese military officials to adorn their tombs with sculpted figures of both imported horses and their red-haired, bearded Sogdian grooms. The Sogdians (a people of ancient Central Asian kingdoms in the region of modern Uzbekistan) were important in the commerce of the Silk Road between the fourth and ninth centuries.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
The global reach of the Tang Empire and the commercial success of its Silk Road enterprise by land and by sea attracted many foreign adventurers, entertainers, and workers to China. The Chinese were fascinated by their exotic looks and ethnic garments and featured them prominently in the painting and pottery of the period. This Sogdian groom likely came out of the tomb of a Chinese military official, along with a retinue of other figures for a comfortable afterlife. The pottery groom, made of low-fired earthenware and decorated with white slip (liquid clay) and pigments, demonstrates the Tang interest in realism. He is carefully depicted with red hair, bushy eyebrows, deep-set eyes, large nose, well-trimmed beard, and wide-lapelled robe, which is tied with a black belt below the waist under a fleece overcoat. He wears white leggings with soft knee- high black boots.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
a northern celadon bowl of conical shape, incised with abstract depictions of fish and waves on interior, small ring foot
Subject Matter
small celadon bowl with incised design of fish and waves in the interior, a common motif in Song ceramics
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Yaozhou ware was famous as the so-called Northern Celadon of the Song dynasty (960–1279) and was heavily traded and copied in and outside China, influencing the development of celadon in Korea and Southeast Asia. Carving or incising was the characteristic decorative technique of earlier Yaozhou ware. Traditional Chinese art contains many rebuses, or pictorial puzzles. The word for fish in Chinese is yu, which is a homophone for “plenty” or “abundance.” The image of fish on this dish thus symbolizes a wish for bountiful food on the table and eternal prosperity.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
bronze mirror with highly polished surface, back side deocrated with lions and grape motif and an animal shaped knob in the center.
Subject Matter
Bronze mirror of the Tang Empire in Middle Period China, decorated with Persian inspired design of lions (also known as sea beast) and grapes
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
In the Tang dynasty, it was the lion and grape motif that appealed most to wealthy members of society for the decoration of mirrors. Grapes had been introduced through trade with west Asia during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) and clusters of grapes came to be associated in China with prosperity and large numbers of offspring. Lions had been symbols of royal authority in ancient Persia and India and entered China as exotic tributes from Central Asia. They became a popular motif on Pan-Asian metalwork and textiles of the period. The best of the lion-and-grape mirrors, with their vigorous designs cast in sharp, high relief, as seen in this example, rank among the finest metalwork produced in Chinese history.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Thinnly cast mirror with narrow rim and bridge-shaped knob, back decorated with interlaces of serpentine and angular meaders, front side polished flat
Subject Matter
bronze mirror decorated with interlaces of serpentine and angular meaders, front side polished flat, used by the elite of Warring States Period in first millennium BCE
Label Copy
China has had mirrors since the late second millennium BCE. Traditional Chinese mirrors were in the form of bronze disks with a polished reflecting surface and relief decorations cast on the back, as seen in these four examples from a wide range of dynastic periods. A braided silk cord was passed through the knob at the center of the back that was used as a “handle” for the mirror. Variations in surface color or patina of these mirrors—from silvery to green to black – result from different ratios of copper and tin (the components of bronze) and burial conditions, as mirrors were personal accessories that customarily accompanied the deceased to the afterlife.
Decoration on the backs of bronze mirrors usually follows the styles current in metalwork of the period. The delicate design on the Warring States-period mirror is a beautiful curvilinear pattern known as “hook-and-volute” that is the highly abstracted form of a dragon. It is found on bronze vessels as well as textile decoration from that period.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
jade pendent with zoomorphic design, with abstract representation of animal form, possibly a bird. Notchs on the edge and worn relief carvings on the surface indicate that the pendant was probably recarved from a broken jade object from an earlier era.
Subject Matter
Jade pendent with zoomorphic design, with abstract representation of animal form, possibly a bird. Such pendants are frequently encountered in Shang elite tombs in the second half of the sencond millennium B.C. in the Central Plains, China. Notchs on the edge and worn relief carvings on the surface indicate that the pendant was probably recarved from a broken jade object from an earlier era, possibly a ceremonial blade from the coastal prehistoric Longshan society of the third millennium
Label Copy
The heads of horses, deer, mules, and other animals which represented the status or rank of the owner often decorated knives of the nomadic tribes. Such knives were often exchanged with Chinese traders at the border in the Bronze Age.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art," April 6, 2002 - December 1, 2002.
Jade pendants such as these were worn as ornaments by the ruling class of China’s Bronze Age as symbols of rank, wealth, and power. The pendants were sewn onto garments or headdresses through cleverly disguised small holes, as observed here in these two works. The designs of Shang and Zhou jades were inherited from the late stone-age cultures of China’s Neolithic period, and drew inspiration from forms of the animal kingdom, both real and imagined.. In the Shang and Zhou periods, the carving became flatter and the decorative repertoire expanded from birds, fish turtles and forms of a dragon to include larger animals such as rams, horses, tigers, or fantastic composites of different animals and perennially favored dragons.
Nephrite jade and other stones used by the ancient Chinese for carving were extremely hard and could not be carved or whittled away with metal tools but had to be worn down with an abrasive paste to achieve the desired shape and decoration. The ancient lapidary’s tools probably included rotating drills, polishers, and rubbers made of bamboo, wood, or slate loaded with abrasive paste. Jade ornaments were buried with their owners, along with ceremonial jade such as bi discs and cong tubes.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
the ceremonial degger-axe replicate in jade a common bronze weapon of the Shang dynasty called ge. It has a wide blade with a sharp point at one end and a plain, rectangular tang on the other.
Subject Matter
jade ge dagger-axe or halberd used for for ceremonial display by Shang (circa 16th to 11th century B.C.) elite in Bronze Age China, often discovered as grave goods in elite burials of the Late Shang period, along with bronze halberds and other military hardware associated with chariot warfare. It was probably once hafted to a lacquered wooden handle as part of the elite paraphernalia
Label Copy
Shang lapidaries—master workers of nephrite jade and other hard stones l—inherited their craft from their Neolithic predecessors. Neolithic jades fall into two categories: ornaments used by the ruling elite such as pendants, belt hooks, and bracelets and implements for ceremonial or ritual use such as bi disc and cong tube. Shang jades fellow this basic repertoire of Neolithic forms but added decorative flourishes such as serration along the contours of objects, incised geometric designs, and, sometimes, inlaid bronze work. The two ceremonial halberds shown here, is, however, a Shang jade form without Neolithic precedent. It is based on a bronze weapon called ge developed during the Shang period. This jade form remained unchanged in style throughout much of the dynasty, due to its ritual use and the difficulty of carving hard stones.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Highly stylized depiction of dragon design with tiger head, lower right portion broken off
Subject Matter
jade pendant of zoomorphic design and classic Late Shang style. The head is depicted as a feline with open mouth. Lower right portion broken off. Relief carving in double lines on surface. Used as pendant for high elite in Shang period, generally encountered as tomb furnishing in the Central Plains of northern China
Label Copy
The heads of horses, deer, mules, and other animals which represented the status or rank of the owner often decorated knives of the nomadic tribes. Such knives were often exchanged with Chinese traders at the border in the Bronze Age.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art," April 6, 2002 - December 1, 2002.
Jade pendants such as these were worn as ornaments by the ruling class of China’s Bronze Age as symbols of rank, wealth, and power. The pendants were sewn onto garments or headdresses through cleverly disguised small holes, as observed here in these two works. The designs of Shang and Zhou jades were inherited from the late stone-age cultures of China’s Neolithic period, and drew inspiration from forms of the animal kingdom, both real and imagined.. In the Shang and Zhou periods, the carving became flatter and the decorative repertoire expanded from birds, fish turtles and forms of a dragon to include larger animals such as rams, horses, tigers, or fantastic composites of different animals and perennially favored dragons.
Nephrite jade and other stones used by the ancient Chinese for carving were extremely hard and could not be carved or whittled away with metal tools but had to be worn down with an abrasive paste to achieve the desired shape and decoration. The ancient lapidary’s tools probably included rotating drills, polishers, and rubbers made of bamboo, wood, or slate loaded with abrasive paste. Jade ornaments were buried with their owners, along with ceremonial jade such as bi discs and cong tubes.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
ceremonial jade ge dagger-axe, pointed blade on one end and squared tang for hafting on the other. It was broken and mented in the middle. Traces of cinnabar, red mercury sulfide, remain on the jade surface, indicating it probably came from a Shang elite burial in China. The jade material was probably fire treated to create the bony look.
Subject Matter
jade ge dagger-axe for ceremonial display by Shang (circa 16th to 11th century B.C.) elite in Bronze Age China, often discovered as grave goods in elite burials of the Late Shang period, along with bronze halberds and other military hardware associated with chariot warfare. It was probably once covered in cinnabar, red mercury sulfide, as everything else in the elite burial. The jade or hardstone was probably heat treated to create the bony look.
Label Copy
Shang lapidaries—master workers of nephrite jade and other hard stones l—inherited their craft from their Neolithic predecessors. Neolithic jades fall into two categories: ornaments used by the ruling elite such as pendants, belt hooks, and bracelets and implements for ceremonial or ritual use such as bi disc and cong tube. Shang jades fellow this basic repertoire of Neolithic forms but added decorative flourishes such as serration along the contours of objects, incised geometric designs, and, sometimes, inlaid bronze work. The two ceremonial halberds shown here, is, however, a Shang jade form without Neolithic precedent. It is based on a bronze weapon called ge developed during the Shang period. This jade form remained unchanged in style throughout much of the dynasty, due to its ritual use and the difficulty of carving hard stones.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
square ding (ting) tripod with four legs, the body as well as the upper portion of the four legs is decorated with "t'ao-t'ieh" zoomorphic design. One of the leg was recast after the rest of the body has been completed, thus had a less refined craftmanship and joint line at its base. The double loop handles are also decorated with zoomorphic design. A group of three inscription is cast on the upper portion of the interior wall, which reads as Fu (father) Ji (day name), followed by an symbolic representation of a chariot, possibly a clan emblem. The interior is plain, the animal bone remains attached to the bottom and variations in patina patterns with a line running through the middle indicates that the vessel was once filled with cooked meat offerings, presumably in a Shang elite burial in late second millennium B.C.E.
Subject Matter
known as the ding tripod for cooking and presentation of food, usually animal meat, in ancestral rituals of early China. The narrow upper register of the body of the vessel is decorated with Kui dragons, face-to-face around the top. The dragons have open mouths, long thin bodies that end in curled tails. The body of the vessel is decorated with tao-tie masks with staring eyes and above which are broad, curving horns. The nose is formed by the raised flanges that divide each mask in half. At the bottom is the open, hook-like jaws. The upper sections of the legs and the two loop handles are also decorated with zoomorphic designs of masks and dragons.
Label Copy
The "ding," an object used for offering food to ancestors and for cooking, was the most important food container among ancient Chinese ritual bronzes. The form of the square "ding" was probably derived from a wooden prototype. The "t'ao-t'ieh" mask design on this piece is the most prevalent decorational pattern found on ancient Chinese bronzes. "T'ao-t'ieh" was a mythical animal which had a head but no body. No matter how much it ate, it could never get enough. Such a mask on a food vessel might be a caution against overeating.
Metalworking emerged around 2000 BCE in China, with bronze vessels appearing around 1600 to 1500 BCE in what is known as the Shang dynasty (DATES). Shang society followed the Neolithic societies of Northern China and is the first historically recorded civilization of China. Chinese writing was invented by the Shang and the short inscriptions they left on oracle bones and bronze vessels, along with extensive excavations, show a complex and highly organized society headed by a king and his family, administered by officials, and serviced by craftsmen, slaves, and prisoners of war. The dynasty occupied three capitals in Henan province, the last of which, Anyang, (ca. 1300-1050 BCE) was located south of present-day Beijing. It was in Anyang that some of the world’s greatest masterpieces of bronze art came into being.
The ding was the most important cooking vessel in the Shang, used for offering food to ancestors and for cooking. Most ding vessels are round in form and stand on three legs. This four-legged variant with a rectangular body, known as a fang ding (square ding), is thought to have been for the exclusive use of royalty. The square form was probably derived from a wooden prototype.
The taotie mask design on the center is the most prevalent decoration found on Shang bronzes. Taotie was a mythical animal that had a head but no body. No matter how much it ate, it could never get enough. A taotie mask on a food vessel might be a caution against overeating. Above the taotie is a register of with two pairs of confronting kui dragons. These legless creatures have been identified in Shang pictograms as the form for the Chinese word long or “dragon.” The interior of this square ding has two incised characters reading “fu (father) ji (name of day),” followed by a symbol of a chariot, possibly a clan emblem.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
Inscription
Inscribed on interior side of vessel: "Father Chi," "Chariot"
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Large, flat disk made of gray and green jade with touches of black and brown with a hole in the center. Incised circle around outer edge of disk and around edge of interior hole.
Subject Matter
The “bi” disk originated among China’s Liangzhu culture around 3,000-2,500 B.C.E. The function and meaning of these disks are unknown. As late as the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220), jade disks performed a ritual function in aristocratic burials, where they were placed above the head, below the feet, and on the chest of the deceased. They were also depicted on painted burial shrouds of the second century B.C. In these paintings two dragons thread their way through a jade disk, going on their way from the nether world to the celestial realm. This suggests that jade disks may have been intended to help the deceased's soul in its journey to heaven. Although it is not certain that the disks functioned in this way in Neolithic times, the enormous labor involved in perfecting their abstract shape and lustrous finish is striking testimony to the reverence accorded them and their importance as a ceremonial object.
Label Copy
The froms of the bi (circle) and cong (square) date back to the stone age in China but their original meaning, function, and names are unknown. In the succeeding Bronze Age cultures of the Shang (ca. 1600-1050 BCE) and early Zhou dynasty, cong and bi are rarely found. Unearthed in greater numbers in later Zhou sites, they gained importance in the following Han dynasty, where they were at the core of the earliest Chinese books on philosophy, cosmology, and metaphysics. The Zhou Li (Book of Rites), an ancient Chinese book, compiled by the Zhou dynasty and amended during the Han dynasty (206 BCE- 220 CE), describes the cong as a symbol of earth (square) and the bi as the symbol of heaven (circle).
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
After the fall of the Tang dynasty (618–907), the practice of building vast and lavishly furnished underground tombs was gradually abandoned. This shift in burial practice may be attributed in part to the growing influence of Buddhism (whose followers often chose cremation), but owes even more to the collapse of the economic underpinnings and ritual context of the Tang imperial court. After a half-century of chaos, China was reunified under the Song dynasty. Under imperial patronage, painting, poetry, and ceramics were nurtured to unprecedented levels of refinement. These small jars, examples of a type found widely in Song tombs, exemplify the new taste for simplicity and elegance
Scholars are uncertain of the exact function and meaning of these curiously shaped vessels. Some speculate that the five-part division of the body alludes to a phrase for abundant harvest, wugu fengdeng ????. However, the organic shape of these vessels and their incised patterns suggests a stylized lotus bud. In Pure Land Buddhism—perhaps the school of East Asian Buddhism that was most accessible to the layperson—devotees were promised rebirth in the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitâbha, if they would only call out Amitâbha’s name, even with one’s last breath. Images of the Western Paradise show these reborn souls emerging from lotus buds in a pond in Amitâbha’s realm.
Funerary jars or urns such as this one are thought to be associated with rites concerned with immortality, perhaps housing the spirit or soul of the departed in the manner of Hunping (‘jar for the soul’) of the Western Jin period (165-316) in the adjacent case. Some scholars speculate that the five false spouts allude to a Chinese phase for abundant harvest, “wugu fengdeng” and that such vessels were ritual containers for the “Five Grains” of China—wheat, rice, barley, maize, and sorghum.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Stoneware jar with cobalt blue glaze dripping down vessel; foot and bottom ? of jar left unglazed
Subject Matter
Cobalt glazes, no doubt inspired by imported Persian wares, first appear in China in the Tang dynasty (618–907). After the fall of the Tang, however, access to cobalt sources dried up with the changing political climate. Cobalt would re-emerge as an important element in Chinese porcelain decoration, after trade with Central Asia and Iran was re-established by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.
Label Copy
Cobalt glazes, no doubt inspired by imported Persian wares, first appear in China in the Tang dynasty (618–907). After the fall of the Tang, however, access to cobalt sources dried up with the changing political climate. Cobalt would re-emerge as an important element in Chinese porcelain decoration, after trade with Central Asia and Iran was re-established by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.
During the stable and peaceful Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road brought exotic luxury goods to China, including metalwork, glass, precious stones, ivory, and textiles from Central Asian, India, and the Middle East. The bustling Tang capital of Chang’an (modern Xi’an) was a bit like the Paris and New York of today in its cosmopolitan mix of peoples, cultures, music, foods, and goods. The cobalt glaze of the handsome storage jar was inspired by imports of Persian (Iranian) glass . The experimental splashed glaze on the ewer also uses imported cobalt while the the dragon-headed handle derives from a popular Iranian metalwork motif.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
