The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Shallow Basin Supported by a Bird (Bian)

Shallow Basin Supported by a Bird (Bian)

early 400s BCE
(475–221 BCE)
bronze inlaid with powdered malachite and azurite
Overall: 23.3 cm (9 3/16 in.); Diameter of base: 18.3 cm (7 3/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1991.8
Location: 241A Arts of Ancient China

Description

The bird, in its graceful and dignified pose, firmly grasps a pair of intertwined serpents cast in the lower basin. This composition of the bird's triumph over the serpent has been given various interpretations.

The Chinese ethnographers regard this as a totemic symbol—a suggestion of a specific clan's superiority over contending neighboring peoples. Other scholars interpret this as good creatures warding off evil influences or as an early manifestation of the concept of complementary pairing (yin-yang, heaven-earth) in Chinese cosmology.

The original appearance of this vessel was brilliant and colorful due to the use of malachite and azurite in inlaid decoration, producing red, green, and blue against the bronze surface.
  • ?–1991
    (Robert H. Ellsworth, Ltd., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1991–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wilson, J. Keith. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 126 www.jstor.org
    “Recent Acquisitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art II: Departments of Asian Art: Supplement.” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1059 (1991): 417–24. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 418, fig. V www.jstor.org
    "Chinese Antiquities in The Cleveland Museum of Art," Arts of China 75 (Nov. 1991): 54.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. p. 42
    Wilson, J. Keith. "A Recently Acquired Archaic Sculptural Bronze." Oriental Art, v. 38 (1992).
    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. 292; Mentioned: p. 292-96, 346 www.jstor.org
  • Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
  • {{cite web|title=Shallow Basin Supported by a Bird (Bian)|url=false|author=|year=early 400s BCE|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.8