The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 28, 2023

Panel from Model Cooking Stove: Fairy Feeding Lingzhi Fungus to a Dragon

陶炉上的 神人喂龍浮雕

100–1 BC

China, from a tomb in Xi'an, Shanxi province, Western Han dynasty

(202 BC-AD 9)

Earthenware with impressed relief decoration

11.5 x 30.8 x 1.3 cm (4 1/2 x 12 1/8 x 1/2 in.)

Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1925.134

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Han dynasty tombs were often furnished with grave goods to provide the deceased with items for the afterlife.

Description

Han dynasty tombs were often furnished with grave goods to provide the deceased with items for the afterlife. This panel with a dragon was part of a miniature pottery stove to be placed in a burial chamber. This scene of a dragon being fed fungus by a winged fairy is molded on the panel. The dragon is an auspicious creature and an animal of the cardinal directions that protects the east.

Provenance
?-1925
(C.T. Loo 盧芹齋 [1880-1957], Paris and New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1925-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Whiting, Frederic Allen. “The Bequests of Mary Warden Harkness: A Tribute and an Accounting.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 15, no. 2, 1928, pp. 43–50. Mentioned: p. 50 www.jstor.org
Janse, Olov and C.T. Loo. Briques et objets céramiques funéraires de l'époque des Han. Paris: Les Éditions d'art et d'histoire, 1936. Reproduced: Plate XXVI
Cox, Warren E. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. New York: L. Lee and Shepard Co.; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1944. Reproduced: vol I, pl. 19
Trubner, Henry. Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period Through Ch'ien Lung; A Loan Exhibition from Collections in America and Japan. March 14 to April 27, 1952. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1952. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 55, fig. 42:6
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 811 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 248 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 248 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 329 archive.org
Wilson, J. Keith. “Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 77, no. 8, 1990, pp. 286–323. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 301, cat. no. 25, fig. 19 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Mary Warden and Charles W. Harkness Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 1-29, 1928).

Chinese Ceramics. Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA (March 14-April 27, 1952).

Classic to Baroque: A Style Change in the Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30-November 13, 1949).

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

From Caves to Tombs: Chinese Pictorial Rubbings from Stone Reliefs (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-November 14, 2021).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1925.134