Jade Crouching Bear in the Round | Harvard Art Museums

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: 1943.50.308
Title: Jade Crouching Bear in the Round
Classification: Ritual Implements
Work Type: figurine
Date: 12th-10th century BCE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Shang dynasty (c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE) to Western Zhou period (c. 1050-771 BCE)
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/204747

Location

Location: Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age

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Physical Descriptions

Medium: Light grayish green nephrite
Dimensions: H. 1.9 x L. 4.5 x D. 2.5 cm (3/4 x 1 3/4 x 1 in.)
Weight 34 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. 157 by Max Loehr:

157 Crouching Bear in the Round
Carved from a truncate cone of light grayish green jade. The underside is flattened, and the limbs are set off from the body by a longitudinal channel and by shallow transverse grooves. The bear’s body, tapering toward the head, is ornamented with widely spaced Shang-style volutes and hooks; they are unrelated to the bear’s anatomy. The head is almost triangular, with the eyes carefully defined by double lines. The nose is subtly shaped by two short grooves; the mouth is formed by an unobtrusively incised line. Only the ears stand free. A perforation in the bottom channel consists of two connected, slanting holes. Late Shang.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.50.308

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. 157, p. 128
Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 166, 168, fig. 1

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

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1943.50.308: Jade Crouching Bear in the Round