A pale jade statuette of a standing female figure with a small body and a large head. The space in between the legs and arms are cut out. There are engraved lines on the figure to show fingers and details of the face.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The pale grey jade statuette is of a standing female figure with a small body and a large head on a dark grey background. The figure’s legs are short and stout. The torso is very small and slim. The arms are thicker and bow out with the hands in front of the stomach. The space in between the legs and arms are cut out. There are engraved lines on the figure to show fingers and details of the face. The face has thin lips, a large nose, large eyes with many engraved lines above them, and a small irregularly cut piece on top of the head.

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
1943.50.315
Title
Jade Statuette of a Nude Female
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
figurine
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/204485

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
Calcified, bone-colored nephrite
Dimensions
H. 11 x W. 3.1 x D. 2 cm (4 5/16 x 1 1/4 x 13/16 in.)
Weight 91 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. 118 by Max Loehr:

118 Statuette of a Nude Female
Standing figure, rather crudely carved of a now calcified, bone-colored jade. The face is flat, with incised or slightly relieved features: exaggeratedly thick, striated eyebrows; large eyes of the shape commonly seen in Shang zoomorphs; a broad nose; a broad, thick-lipped mouth. The ears are worked out in bolder relief. Over the neatly striated hair, only indicated on the back, the woman wears a headdress resembling the reticulated flanges such as occur, for instance, on ornate Shang jade axes. The arms are separated from the disproportionately narrow chest by joined perforations, and the hands meet at the abdomen. The relatively short legs are separated by a larger and a smaller perforation. There is no indication of the feet, below the level of which there is a short, recessed extension. The back, save for the striated hair, is plain. Though fairly thick, this statuette is not modeled in the round; the face meets the sides at right angles, and the volumes of head and body are largely accidental. Late Shang.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.315
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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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. 118, p. 110
  • Meryl Faith Cohen, "Ancient Chinese Jade Figures in the Winthrop Collection: An Anthropological Inquiry" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, March 1990), Unpublished, pp. 1-110 passim
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 162-64, cat. 19A

Exhibition History

  • S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 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