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A flat jade sculpture that is round in shape and pale green in color. The bottom has engraved lines to show a rear hooved leg and a kneeled front hooved leg. The left side has square engravings to show the profile of a horn.

The flat jade sculpture is round in shape and pale green in color. The bottom has curved, engraved lines to show the profile of a rear hooved leg and a kneeled front hooved leg. The left side has square engravings to show the profile of a horn and two square engravings to show a nostril. The middle and front engraving has red coloring.

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
1943.50.262
Title
Jade Recumbent Buffalo in Low Relief
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/205020

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
Mottled pale green and whitish nephrite, with traces of red pigment
Dimensions
H. 3.7 x W. 4.8 x Thickness 0.5 cm (1 7/16 x 1 7/8 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 18 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. 152 by Max Loehr:

152 Recumbent Buffalo in Low Relief
Mottled pale green and whitish jade, with traces of red pigment. The plano-convex slab, plain on the underside, is fashioned in low relief into a buffalo figure combining top and side views, and therefore quite misproportioned. The head, with its rectangular eyes and ornamented horns, is very carefully carved out. The animal’s spine, indicated by the delicately curved ridge, ends in a short tail. A slanting hole is drilled through the muzzle. Late Shang.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.262
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. 152, p. 125

Exhibition History

  • 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