Food container

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

The handled tureen is one of an extensive array of bronze vessels commissioned by China's royal family and political aristocracy for the preparation and offering of millet and other food in ceremonial banquets. This vessel's distinctive style, with its basin cast onto a hollow square base derived from an altar or stand, was introduced soon after the Zhou conquest of China's first archaeologically verified dynasty, the Shang. Exuberantly imaginative creatures animate the surface. Two large, coiled dragons spread across each side of the bowl; animal-headed birds form the handles; and on the base, creatures with spiky, flame-like plumage display a clever ambiguity: they may be read as addorsed birds or as elephant-headed "dragons" facing each other. Inside the bottom of the basin, an inscription of eleven characters is countersunk in the metal and runs from top to bottom in two columns reading right to left: Zhong Cheng zuo you bao yi yong xiang wang ni wei yong ["Zhong Cheng makes his treasured vessel, to use to feast the king's reciprocal immortalizing." (translation by Edward L. Shaughnessy)]. This brief text commemorates a celebratory event: the commission of t

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