Minneapolis Institute of Art

Snuff bottle

China

Date

1750–1850

Medium

Jade, rose quartz

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Beneath a crescent moon, a woman sits at the bow of a fisherman’s boat in a river, playing a stringed instrument called a pipa. The scene comes from a famous Chinese narrative poem called “The Song of the Pipa Player, ” composed by the poet Bai Juyi in 816 CE. In the poem, a man encounters this pipa player and expresses the sadness he feels when he hears her play her melancholy song. The bottle’s creamy white color is reminiscent of the moonlight mentioned in the poem: We drank with depressed heart, Seeing my friends off while the moonlight bathed in the river. Suddenly the pipa sounds drifting to our ears from a neighboring boat, My guests forgot to leave and I knew not where we were. China, Asia

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