Minneapolis Institute of Art

Lei wine vessel

China

Date

late 4th century BCE

Medium

Bronze with gold, silver and copper inlay

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This wine vessel is a superb example of Eastern Zhou bronze artistry and technique, as changing beliefs led to a shift from strictly ritual use to more secular purposes. This is reflected in increasingly decorative designs, the fearsome taotie masks and symbolic animal motifs of earlier periods giving way to abstract patterns such as “hook and comma” designs, granulation, and metallic inlay. This vessel belongs to a distinguished group of burial objects associated with the Eastern Zhou royal lineage. China, Asia

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