Cleveland Museum of Art

Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Ox (Taurus)

Date: 500s
Medium: gray earthenware with traces of slip
Culture: China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
Department: Chinese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

The twelve-animal zodiac series—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar—signifies a traditional Chinese concept of time structured in a cyclical order. The twelve animals are also linked to the art of fortune-telling that underlies human existence in connection with the changes of the universe. The use of the twelve zodiac animals as tomb furniture suggests they provided a cosmological structure for the afterlife. The lower half of the interior of the figure is hollow.

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