Description
This beautiful pair of late Eastern Zhou openwork jade plaques illustrate a level of creativity and technical achievement that was unequaled before or since. Taking the shape of a pair of fantastic creatures, they are at once tigerlike, rhinolike, and dragonlike. Their strong silhouettes are marked with shallow relief bands, and their subtly swelling embellished surfaces are finished to the same degree on both sides.
Provenance
(James J. Lally, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?–1991); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1991–)
Accession Number
1991.78.1
Medium
nephrite
Dimensions
Overall: 22.5 x 8.9 cm (8 7/8 x 3 1/2 in.)
Classification
Jade
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund and the John L. Severance Fund