Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Tiger (Gemini)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Tiger (Gemini)

Date
500s
Medium
gray earthenware with traces of slip
Culture
China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
Department
Chinese Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
147059

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

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 exterior surface was originally painted with a red, yellow, and brown slip over an overall layer of white slip.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

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

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.BkScKTlPVV_ghdBg.CG0oOxofR3tr5JTHm5k5wOTmKPBYSnpvq0LQzAI4lytkHeinsvFeesmLe7J-tNS7IjjYguLT74E-LLh_bqDF7BORytVmBHIambQqDZbEBhK5ok8prbsf2OJHbyDqHf1TnMxQWyYmllFU-kPhLEwxuVY5zP22kbm5rTxVl-ob3sV6bM4jwFX7ZTsUtYa0L1syH5N7zuEIUY99MrdXKzWuI5NZQx-z-05CSNm8VFbYnougOG4ZMkU_h3GCQFbQ3gEtwHK_N6eip0yMPchUoHuNMRclk14YLswZqIppCoMBkV3vmMCJZASee at Cleveland Museum of Art QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.0Oq44L43fgXRov7w._LsKRTp-KxTnLBrz1IpqfMnJk0cAWEw-QXmlYqxJtGcQ9tqpT-aS-58eZRkQ6XJt9e0aZB9jl1f9tFeWYzh2K8ZXo59q07CnttMud6og63KPZEBVwQum6haEJYfxPgigfNOZoevSVTDkxF4vWJpfT3kn7pPR1eqo03FbdH3mRSL6FlG2WqpHkZyoYgnttfl8U2RmQlLZh8784cLQLQ5bXogWtgJqMuoC22Lmp8WsFmBsenDZytry_Petefos4Zd8aywwIPPuhDuE86OG5BlSG2yjy49eFK7lqLkaCoojRXE
Open this page
See at Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line
The Norweb Collection
Provenance
?–1972: Mrs. R. Henry [Emery May Holden] Norweb [1895–1984], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1972–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.