1943.50.619.A: Jade Semicircular Fish Figure (One of a Pair)
Ritual ImplementsA pair of jade sculptures of very long, thin fish that are curved in a semicircular shape on a black background. The two fish are shown horizontally parallel to each other with some space in between them. Both fish are facing the right with both of their heads and tails pointing downward. There are carved lines on the tops and bottoms or show fins and a deep line through the centers of the bodies. There are small holes through the mouths. The fish are pale yellow in 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
- 1943.50.619.A
- Title
- Jade Semicircular Fish Figure (One of a Pair)
- 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/204531
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
- Cream-colored nephrite with gray markings
- Dimensions
-
W. 0.7 x L. 6.7 x Thickness 1.2 cm (1/4 x 2 5/8 x 1/2 in.)
Weight 8 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. 140 by Max Loehr:
140 Pair of Semicircular Fish Figures
Cut from a narrow collard disk of cream-colored jade with gray markings. In contrast to the preceding piece, the collar has been ground away only in part, just sufficiently to leave the pectoral fins and the tips of the tail in slight relief. Behind the tail at the obliquely cut end, the disk body is ground down to become flush with the head; here the mouth is perforated from the side. In the other specimen, the collar, though reduced in width, extends to the fish’s mouth, where it is perforated from above. Due to the presence of the collar-ridges, the heads are rendered rather indistinctly. 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
- 1943.50.619.A
- 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. 140a, p. 120
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 was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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