Cleveland Museum of Art

Food Container (Gui)

Date

600–500 BCE

Medium

bronze

Culture

China, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Openwork and sculptural designs elaborately transform the silhouette of this gui , a ritual food vessel with a square pedestal. The design exudes motion, exuberance, and baroque characters to a stately vessel form. Lotus-petal openwork encircles the cover, reinforcing the linear rhythms of the undulating wave patterns on the body. Two lively dragons, with eyes and mouth wide open and tongue straight out, are accompanied by two felines to form the arched handles. This ritual food vessel likely held grain like rice, millet, or corn in rites for worshipping the ancestors.

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