Cleveland Museum of Art

Wine Cup (pair)

Date

unassigned

Medium

brass

Department

Korean Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In ancestor veneration rituals, deceased parents or ancestors are sanctified as spirits who are believed to oversee their descendants. Three times a year, once at the lunar new year, once at the person’s death date, and once at the time of the mid-autumn festival, food would be placed on the table for the ancestors, including fruits, rice, meat, and rice wine. During these ceremonies the worshipers’ attitude was as reverential toward the objects meant to embody the ancestors’ spirits as that toward a living parent. This pair of brass cups may have been used for ancestral rituals to contain rice wine. This pair of bronze cups may have been used in family rituals such as ancestral worship ceremonies.

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