The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 3, 2023

Wine Cups (Jue)

c. 1200 BC

China, late Shang dynasty (c.1600-c.1046 BC), Anyang phase

(c.1250-1046 BC)

Bronze

Overall: 20.3 x 19.7 cm (8 x 7 3/4 in.)

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund and Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1960.78

Location

241A Arts of Ancient China

Description

Wine and food played a major role in ritual offerings to the ancestral spirits and the Supreme Ancestor (Shangdi) performed by the Shang rulers in the state cult of ancestor worship. A variety of wine vessels—each type given a specific name—was cast to bear witness to the power and artistic vitality of this remote civilization.

This example of a jue wine cup is for libations. Other major types of wine vessels include jia (wine warming vessel), fangyou (square wine container), and gu (beaker with a trumpeted mouth for pouring).

Citations
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Four Ritual Vases,” March 27, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286-323. Reproduced: p. 288, 312 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

1960 Cleveland Museum of Art, Year in Review for 1960, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961, no. 26

1988 Cleveland Museum of Art, Treasures for the Yellow Springs, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, February 2-June 6, 1988 (no cat.)

1990 Cleveland Museum of Art, Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, July 24-December 30, 1990, no. 2

1994 Cleveland Museum of Art, Asian Autumn: "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions," cat., Bull., vol. 81, no. 8 (Oct. 1994) cat. no. 7, p. 346

Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).

Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 25, 1990).

Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.78