The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 9, 2022

Jar (Hu)

202 BC-AD 9

China, probably Henan province, Western Han dynasty

(202 BC-AD 9)

Earthenware with slip and painted decoration

Overall: 48.2 cm (19 in.)

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1989.15

Location

241B Arts of Ancient China

Description

Instead of depicting a real landscape, the artist focused on the rhythmic forces of nature and the movement of energy, using the scrolling form as a symbol common to all changes in nature: cloud vapors, waves, and mountains alike. Here a dragon hovers among sweeping scrolls.

Citations
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: cover, p. 295, 315 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 13 archive.org
Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347. Reproduced: p. 304; Mentioned: p. 303-07, 347 www.jstor.org
Cunningham, Michael R. Masterworks of Asian art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: p. 34 - 35
Exhibition history

1994 CMA: Asian Autumn: "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions," cat., Bull., vol. 81, no. 8 (October 1994) cat. no. 21, p. 347, pp. 303-307, repr.p. 304

The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990).

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/1989.15