Food Container (Gui)

Description

Openwork and sculptural designs elaborately transform the silhouette of this gui, a ritual food vessel with a square pedestal. The design exudes motion, exuberance, and baroque characters to a stately vessel form. Lotus-petal openwork encircles the cover, reinforcing the linear rhythms of the undulating wave patterns on the body. Two lively dragons, with eyes and mouth wide open and tongue straight out, are accompanied by two felines to form the arched handles.

Provenance

Hans Jüergen von Lochow [1902–1989]; Frederick M. Mayer [1899–1974], New York, NY (?–1974); (Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, June 25, 1974 sale, lot 219, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (June 25, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1974–)

Food Container (Gui)

[]

600–500 BCE

Accession Number

1974.73

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

Overall: 34.3 x 44.5 cm (13 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.)

Classification

Metalwork

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund