Cleveland Museum of Art

Jade Plaque

Date

475–221 BCE

Medium

nephrite

Culture

China, Henan province, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), Warring States period (475–221 BCE)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This beautiful pair of late Eastern Zhou openwork jade plaques illustrate a level of creativity and technical achievement that was unequaled before or since. Taking the shape of a pair of fantastic creatures, they are at once tigerlike, rhinolike, and dragonlike. Their strong silhouettes are marked with shallow relief bands, and their subtly swelling embellished surfaces are finished to the same degree on both sides.

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