Jar
date: label: Date
content: 6th century
label: Period
content: Northern Qi or Northern Zhou dynasty
notes: label: Description
content: Vase of bottle shape, tall thin tapering neck with flaring lip pinched into trefoil spout; lugs on body and lip.
label: Description
content: Body: hard buff earthenware.
label: Description
content: Glaze: green lead glaze, finely crackled, largely iridescent.
label: Description
content: Decoration: lion masks and rosettes applied in relief.
label: Label
content: This long-necked jar belongs to a group of funerary vessels of northern provenance. Unlike Han dynasty lead-glazed burial pieces, it served a Buddhist function. The appliques of monster masks, rosettes and lozenges with beaded borders reflect Central Asian, specifically Khotanese, influence. The tall, splayed base support, which lends the jar a decidedly more attenuated shape, has parallels in ceramics recently unearthed in China. The tall neck and trefoil mouth typical of West Asian metal ewers and bottles are unusual features and suggest that foreign metal vessels served as prototypes.
label: Provenance
content: To 1930
label: Provenance
content: C. T. Loo & Company, New York [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1930
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company, New York [2]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires (May 9, 1993 to January 28, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Ceramics (March 15, 1982 to July 10, 1986)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Metalwork, Pottery, and Painting (March 23, 1944 to May 2, 1946)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Scrolls (July 19, 1943 to April 30, 1946)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Chinese and Korean Ceramics (March 22, 1943 to November 13, 1944)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Panels and Han Pottery (February 25, 1925 to July 19, 1943)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: C. T. Loo & Company (1914-1948)
place: label: Origin
content: China
topic: label: Topic
content: iridescence
label: Topic
content: ceramic
label: Topic
content: lion
label: Topic
content: Northern Qi dynasty (550 - 577)
label: Topic
content: Northern Zhou dynasty (557 - 581)
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: earthenware
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1930.33
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Earthenware clay with copper-green lead-silicate glaze
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 60 x 30.2 cm (23 5/8 x 11 7/8 in)