1943.50.154: Jade Demon Face
Ritual ImplementsThe jade piece is cut into the shape of a demon face and shown lying flat on a grey background. It is white and yellow in color with grey discoloration. The piece is cut with a wide, flat neck at the bottom, ears pointing out with large hoop earrings on its side, two wide pointed shapes on the top corners, and a short point at the top center. The top-left point has been broken off or has been softened in shape. There are engraved lines to show the demon’s mouth, teeth, and eyes.
Gallery Text
The Shang refined Neolithic jade-making practices, fashioning ritual blades and implements of even greater sophistication than those of their predecessors, incorporating jade blades into turquoise-inlaid bronze hafts, and expanding their jade repertoire into representational shapes of humans and animals.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.154
- Title
- Jade Demon Face
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- ornament
- Date
- Neolithic or Shang period, c. 2500 - c. 1500 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Neolithic period to Shang dynasty
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205282
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
View this object's location on our interactive map
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Light yellowish green jade with decomposed white streaks
- Dimensions
-
H. 5 x W. 4.1 x Thickness 0.4 cm (1 15/16 x 1 5/8 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 18 g
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
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. 246 by Max Loehr:
246 Demon Face
Light yellowish green jade with decomposed white streaks. The mask is carved out in thread relief lines from a concave piece of stone with a vertical crest down the middle. The eyes have the shape characteristic of Shang or Western Chou zoomorphs; the nose is almost flat; the mouth bares rows of squarish teeth and log fangs. Instead of earlobes there are small perforated disks. The forehead rises to an obtuse point, and beyond the eyes expands into flamboyantly outlined wing-shapes. The back is left plain. Probably early Western Chou.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.154
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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 (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 246, p. 188
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), p. 87, fig. 2
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
Subjects and Contexts
- Google Art Project
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be 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