Cleveland Museum of Art

Wine Vessel (Zun)

Date

c. 1000 BCE

Medium

bronze

Culture

China, Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–771 BCE)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Although the Zhou defeated the Shang, the performance of religious rites and the casting of ceremonial bronzes continued. Zhou bronze art, nevertheless, reveals the artistic sentiments of a new era. There was as much confidence in the achievements of the living as observance of ritual duties for the dead. For example, this wine vessel combines artistic imagination with a display of strength and force. Bold images of buffalo heads with protruding horns were cast onto the middle section. Together with the four notched flanges extending downward below the flaring mouth, there is an effect of overflowing energy.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.