- Gallery Text
In the Zhou dynasty the number of jades in burial sites increased significantly, as multiple plaques and beads were sewn or strung together and draped over the face and body of the deceased. Jades in the forms of figures and animals became increasingly realistic, and surface patterns became more complex and highly decorative.
- Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- Flat Jade Tablet Combining Anthropomorphic Figure and Animal Heads
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- 9th century BCE
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Zhou dynasty, Western Zhou period, c. 1050-771 BCE
- Persistent Link
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
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- Physical Descriptions
- Highly translucent, deep green nephrite with dark speckles
- H. 11.8 x W. 2.4 x Thickness 0.3 cm (4 5/8 x 15/16 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 22 g
- Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
- Published Text
- Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
- Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
- Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975)
Catalogue entry no. 243 by Max Loehr:
243 Flat Tablet Combining Anthropomorphic Figure and Animal Heads
Highly translucent, deep green jade with dark speckles. Identically engraved on both sides, the thin tablet shows the profile of a more or less human head, adjoining a dragon or feline head that faces downward. A similar animal head occupies the place corresponding to the shoulder and chest of the human figure, whose crouching legs appear below this animal head. The lowermost part sees to have no representational significance. It is noteworthy that while the silhouettes of the animal heads are clear and rhythmically drawn, the human profile is indistinct and timid. Late Western Chou.
- Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- Object Number
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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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, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), cat. no. 243, p. 186
- Exhibition History
32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
- Subjects and Contexts
Google Art Project
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