Brownish cube-shaped vessel with four holes at the top and a neck-like handle, terminating in a water buffalo head.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Beige-brown quadrangular animal-shaped vessel with some surface erosion. The vessel is slightly tapered towards the bottom and sits on four squat quadrangular feet. The flat top of the container has four identical holes with raised lips. Extending from the narrowest side of the vessel is a handle-like member, resembling an animal’s neck, terminating in a modeled water buffalo head. The head’s stylized features include large eyes, a snout, triangle-shaped ears and flattened horns. The sides of the container are minimally decorated with raised horizontal ridges; two at the top of the vessel and one at the bottom.

Gallery Text

Although there are no contemporaneous records explaining the meaning of the decorations on Shang bronzes, the preponderance of zoomorphic motifs and the emergence of animal-shaped vessels made of bronze or jade are clear indications of the importance of animals in the repertoire of Shang artisans. The principle Shang motif was the animal mask, referred to in later texts as a taotie. This enigmatic image (seen repeatedly on vessels in the adjacent cases) is not identifiable as any one beast but appears to be a composite of creatures both real and imagined, with two stark eyes, horns, ears, and fangs. During the late Shang period (14th–11th century BCE), animal-shaped vessels began to be cast, perhaps in response to zoomorphic bronzes introduced from southern China. The guang wine vessel displayed here is a magnificent example — it cleverly incorporates a tiger at the front of the vessel and an owl at the back handle; the animals’ heads are represented on the lid and their more subtly rendered bodies are on the vessel.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.636
Title
Small Jade Container for Pigments (Tulu)
Other Titles
Alternate Title: t'u-lu
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ritual implement
Date
c. 1050-771 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Zhou dynasty, Western Zhou period, c. 1050-771 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204606

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
Serpentine
Dimensions
H. 5.1 x W. (of vessel) 4.4 x D. 4.1 cm (2 x 1 3/4 x 1 5/8 in.)
Weight 168 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. 185 by Max Loehr:

185 Small Container for Pigments
Fine-grained greenish black stone with a largely discolored, slightly eroded surface, of a hardness inferior to jade. The body has the form of a cube whose sides narrow toward the bottom. Its recessed base rests on four quadrangular feet. Into the body are drilled four tubular holes, the rims of which rise above the surface that has been ground level around them. From the narrowest side of the cubic body springs a handle-like member that terminates in the head of a water buffalo with incised and sparingly modeled features. The only decoration on the body consist of horizontal ridges (two at the top, one at the bottom), on the three sides facing away from the buffalo protome. Shang or early Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.636
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. 185, p. 142
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 140, 142, cat. 17B

Exhibition History

  • S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • 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