The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 21, 2021

Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head

牛首玉人

c. 4700-2920 BC

Northeast China, Neolithic period, probably Hongshan culture

(4700-2920 BC)

Jade (nephrite)

Overall: 13.2 cm (5 3/16 in.)

Gift of Severance A. Millikin 1953.628

Location

241A Arts of Ancient China

Fun Fact

CMA daringly acquired this masterpiece without knowing exactly what it was. Only after Chinese archaeologists started excavating similar jades in Northeast China could it be attributed to the Hongshan culture.

Description

With a bovine head and four horns, this seated figurine was a powerful ritual and shamanic symbol. Drill holes above its shoulders form two interconnected perforations for suspension, suggesting that the jade was originally used as a pendant, presumably by the shaman performing the tasks of journeying to and communicating with the supernatural realms.

Provenance
John L. Severance [1863-1936], Cleveland, OH
?-1953
Severance A. Millikin [1895-1985], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1953-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
"Schamenendarstellungen," Asia Major 1, 1 (1944): p. 62.
Lee, Sherman E. “More Early Chinese Jades.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 41, no. 10, 1954, pp. 215–217. Mentioned: pp. 215-217; Reproduced: fig. 1 (line drawing) www.jstor.org
Consten, Eleanor von Erdberg. Das Alte China. Stuttgart: G. Kilpper, 1958. Mentioned: pp. 78, 244; Reproduced: pl. 43
Chinese Jade. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania [Museum], 1962. no. 150
Salmony, Alfred. Chinese Jade; Through the Wei Dynasty. New York: Ronald Press, 1963. pp. 218-219, 227, pl. 35:4
Chêng Tê-K'un. “Some Standing Jade Figurines of the Shang-Chou Period.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 28, no. 1, 1966, pp. 39–52. Mentioned: pp. 48-49; Reproduced: fig. 10 www.jstor.org
Hansford, S. Howard. Chinese Carved Jades. London: Faber, 1968. Reproduced: pp. 83-85, pl. 56
Froncek, Thomas, and Hugh Honour. The Horizon Book of the Arts of China. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1969. p. 69
Erickson, Ernest, Jan Wirgin, and Ulf Abel. The Ernest Erickson collection in Swedish museums. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1989. pp. 10-11
Forsyth, Angus. "Five Chinese Jade Figures: Study of the Development of Sculptural Form in Hongshan Neolithic Jade Working." Orientations, 21, 5 (1990). Reproduced: p. 60, figs. 8-8b
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. 275; Mentioned: p. 275, 277, 346 www.jstor.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. 22-w3
Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (2009). Reproduced: p. 29, fig. 2
Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 12-13
Exhibition history

Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956).

Chinese Jade. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (November 30, 1962-February 3, 1963).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

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

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).

Source URL: https://web-collection-prod.clevelandart.org/art/1953.628