The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Ritual Wine Vessel (gong) in the Shape of a Ram

1200s–1000s BCE

China, Yangzi River region, Late Shang Dynasty

(c.1600–1046 BCE)
Bronze
22 cm (8 11/16 in.)
Xike Jiulu Private Collection 3.2023
Location: 241A Arts of Ancient China

Did You Know?

While the craftsman embellished the vessel with fantastic forms and symbolic patterns, the design also captures anatomical features of a real ram, such as its "comma"-shaped nostrils, eyes with elongated orbits, and horns with parallel ridges.

Description

Ancient bronze vessels in animal form are rare. This bronze is exceptional in its naturalistic sculptural quality and fully embellished surface that includes fantastic animals, tigers, birds, and a diamond-shaped mark on the ram’s forehead. Bronzes comparable in style were excavated in the Yangzi River region and are believed to have been cast in the south. The ram is a stellar example of the sophisticated bronze production in the Yangzi River region.
  • before 1940–2017
    Fujita Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, deaccessioned and consigned to Christie's Hong Kong
    March 15, 2017
    (Christie's, Hong Kong, 14 March 2017 sale, lot no. 526)
    2017–
    Xike Jiulu Private Collection
  • Exhibition of Eastern Art: Celebrating the Opening of the Gallery of Eastern Antiquities. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (October 12–December 1, 1968).
    Kodai Chugoku Seidoki Meihinten [Exhibition of Masterpieces of Ancient Chinese Bronzes]. Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc., Osaka, Japan (August 30-September 11, 1960).
    Chugoku In Shu dokiten [Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes from Yin and Zhou Dynasties]. Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc., Tokyo, Japan (November 25-December 7, 1958).
  • {{cite web|title=Ritual Wine Vessel (gong) in the Shape of a Ram|url=false|author=|year=1200s–1000s BCE|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/3.2023