1943.50.415: Jade Semicircular Fish Figure
Ritual ImplementsA light green jade sculpture of a curved fish that lies in a semi-circular shape with its head and tail pointing downward. The fish’s head faces the left and the tail the right. There are carved lines along the top and bottom to show fins and a circle on the head to show an eye. There is a hole through the mouth. The background is a medium grey color.
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
- 1943.50.415
- Title
- Jade Semicircular Fish Figure
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- pendant
- Date
- 12th-11th century BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Shang dynasty, c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/202765
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Translucent, deep celadon-green nephrite
- Dimensions
-
L. 9.5 x W. 1.6 x Thickness 0.3 cm (3 3/4 x 5/8 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 15 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. 139 by Max Loehr:
139 Semicircular Fish Figure
Carved from a collared disk (the type of disk represented by Nos. 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103) of translucent, deep celadon-green jade. The pectoral fins, cut from the perpendicular collar, stand out transversely on both sides of the flat body. The segment behind the tail fin is shaped as an extended second tail. Shang or Western Chou.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.415
- 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.
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
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. 139, p. 120
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 116, 118, 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