The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2023

Mat Weight in the Form of a Bear

202 BC–AD 9

China, Western Han dynasty

(202 BC-AD 9)

Gilt bronze

Overall: 15.7 x 14.6 x 17.3 cm (6 3/16 x 5 3/4 x 6 13/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1994.203

Location

241B Arts of Ancient China

Fun Fact

Bear imagery, which symbolized heroic power, was particularly popular during the Han dynasty.

Description

The bear imagery was particularly popular during the Han dynasty and was a metaphor of heroic power. This heavy, solid bear was probably used as a mat weight; other small squatting bears often served as the legs of vessels.

Provenance
? by 1929–?
Adolphe Stoclet [1871–1949], Palais Stoclet, Brussels, Belgium, to his daughter Raymonde Feron-Stoclet 1
Mme. Raymonde Feron-Stoclet [1897–1963], Brussels, Belgium, to her son Denis Feron
?–1994
Denis Lucien Émile Feron [1928–2015], Hartford, IL, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1994–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

1 1929 Chinesische Kunst exhibition catalogue, pls. 36–38, lists its owner as "Herr A. Stoclet, Brüssels."
Citations
Kümmel, Otto. Chinesische Kunst; zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in der Preussischen Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929, herausgegeben von Otto Kümmel. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1930. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 24 and pls. XXXVI–XXXVIII
Visser, H. F. E. Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium. Amsterdam: "De Spieghel" Pub. Co, 1948. Mentioned: pp. 50–51; Reproduced: pp. 208–211, pls. 64 and 65, no. 131
Cleveland Museum of Art, “New Acquisitions Enter the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection,” February 14, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
Wilson, J. Keith. "Party Animal" The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine, October 1995, pp. 8–9. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 8–9
Wilson, J. Keith., "Party Animal", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 35 no. 08, October 1995 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 32–33
Cox, Daniel J., and Rebecca L. Grambo. Bear: A Celebration of Power and Beauty. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 2000. p. 20
Liu, Cary Y., Michael Nylan, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Naomi Noble Richard, Michael Loewe, and Susan L. Beningson. Recarving China's Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines". Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 47, p. 417
Luhrs, Kathleen. "Calendar." Antiques (Oct 2006): p. 92.
Wang, Michelle C., Guolong Lai, Roel Sterckx, and Eugene Yuejin Wang. A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China. Boston, MA: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2006. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 5, pp. 87–88
Lawton, Thomas. "The Stoclets: Their Milieu and Their Collection." Orientations 44.1 (January/February 2013): pp. 68–73. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 72, fig 7
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 94
Exhibition history

Chinesische Kunst: zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst [Chinese art; two hundred main works from the exhibition of the Society for East Asian Art]. Der Preussischen Akademie der Künste [Prussian Academy of Arts], Berlin, Germany (1929).

Recarving China's Past: The Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines". Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (organizer) (March 4-June 26, 2005).

A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China . Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (October 4, 2006-January 14, 2007).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1994.203