1943.50.327: Jade Pendant in the Shape of a Human Figure
Ritual ImplementsThe flat jade pendant is of a standing person that is dark green in color and shown vertically flat on a dark grey background. It has been carved with fine lines to outline a wrapped robe, belt, draped sleeves, their face, hair, and a small head piece. Their sleeves come together in front of their stomach. There are two protruding, round shaped coming out from the neck with negative space cut out.
Gallery Text
During the Warring States and Han periods, jades functioned not only as ritual and burial items, but also as objects of personal adornment for the living. Other luxury materials, such as gold, bronze, and glass began to be incorporated with jades with greater frequency.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.327
- Title
- Jade Pendant in the Shape of a Human Figure
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- pendant
- Date
- 475-221 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/204797
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
- Yellowish green nephrite with light brown calcified spots
- Dimensions
-
H. 5 x W. 1.7 x Thickness 0.7 cm (1 15/16 x 11/16 x 1/4 in.)
Weight 11 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. 409 by Max Loehr:
409 Pendant in the Shape of a Human Figure
Yellowish green jade with light brown calcified spots. The plano-convex piece is worked into a statuette, apparently of a woman, wearing a kimono-like gown with long sleeves and a broad sash. The hands, held in front, are hidden in the sleeves. The hair, parted in the middle, frames the forehead in a step-like manner, and juts out stiffly, like a rectangle, under a small, turban-like headdress. A pair of openwork double loops issues from the neck like a bow, and the ends arch back to touch the shoulders and the cheeks. All the edges of the garment are marked by evenly striated borders. A perpendicular drill-hole runs through the axis of the figure. Late Eastern Chou.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.327
- 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. 409, p. 281
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 234-5, cat. 30C
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