Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang)
Asian Art
On View: Asian Galleries, West, 2nd floor (China)
This Shang-dynasty gong is the finest Chinese ritual bronze in the Museum’s collection. The lid is shaped like a dragon with a maniacal, toothy grin and protruding horns while the handle forms another beast. On the sides are two demon masks (taotie) with horns, fangs, and bulging eyes, and another two are found under the chin and tail of the beast. In total, twenty dragons, birds, and mythical creatures morph into each other on the lid and body of the vessel, illustrating the spiritual transformation that the ancient Chinese believed occurs when communicating with ancestors, or when leaving this world for the afterlife to become an ancestor oneself. Such vessels were used for pouring wine offerings on ancestral altars or during ritual banquets by Shang kings, who served as the communication links between the living and their ancestors.
MEDIUM
Bronze
DATES
13th–11th century B.C.E.
DYNASTY
late Shang Dynasty
PERIOD
Shang Dynasty
DIMENSIONS
6 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
72.163a-b
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Oblong wine pouring vessel in the shape of a mythical animal, mold-cast in bronze with high-relief decoration of stylized animal and geometric forms.
Brooklyn's Shang Dynasty bronze "Guang" is the Museum's finest early bronze. Truly sculptural in its conception, the "Guang" combines striking animal imagery with finely cast geometric designs. The rituals of the Shang kings were elaborations of banquets that included serving food and wine, and this superbly cast "Guang" is a type of wine vessel. Like other bronzes, it is a symbol of authority, and possession of the best artistic products is directly linked to social and political prestige. The decoration of animals and animal masks raises the much debated question of meaning in Shang bronzes. One writer has suggested the animals represent spirits that possessed Shang shamans during ritual, but this question, which is fueled by the extraordinary sophistication and assurance of Shang animal ornament, has no simple answer.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Asian Galleries, West, 2nd floor (China)
CAPTION
Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang), 13th–11th century B.C.E. Bronze, 6 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 72.163a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 72.163a-b_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 72.163a-b_PS9.jpg., 2019
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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