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Jar (hu)

A work made of bronze inlaid with copper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of bronze inlaid with copper.

Date:

Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period (475–221 B.C.)

Artist:

China

About this artwork

The introduction of metallic inlay enriched bronze vessels with color. In this jar, curvilinear silhouettes of birds, feline creatures, and stags were cast from flat sheets of copper and arranged in pairs in the clay mold assembly. Telltale signs of this technique appear around the foot rim, where some of these copper inlays broke and were displaced when molten bronze was poured into the assembly.

These inlaid images, which were probably inspired by contemporary designs in lacquer painting and embroidery, provide some of the earliest evidence of pictorial representation in Chinese art. In this vessel, such images are stylized to form S-curves, and are more decorative than realistic. The monster mask, a prominent design on earlier bronze vessels, is also abstracted; its horns, nose, and jaws are converted into spirals. Four masklike configurations are centered on the bulge of this vessel; two appear beneath three-dimensional monster masks, which originally held rings.

Status

On View, Gallery 132

Department

Arts of Asia

Title

Jar (hu)

Place

China (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 475 BCE–221 BCE

Medium

Bronze inlaid with copper

Dimensions

44.7 × 30.6 cm (17 5/8 × 12 in.); Diam.: 30.5 cm (12 in.)

Credit Line

Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection

Reference Number

1928.143

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/55821/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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