Collections: Asian Art

Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang). China, late Shang dynasty (circa 1700–1050 B.C.), Bronze, 6 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (16.4 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 72.163a-b

The Chinese were one of the first cultures to develop sophisticated bronze casting technology. Most of the early Chinese bronzes that have survived were found in tombs, where they were placed to serve the dead in the afterlife. The vessels made in this period were probably used in rituals, rather than for everyday functions; an unusually large number were reserved for the preparation and serving of wine. Unlike other bronze wine-pouring vessel types, which were made in clay thousands of years before their first appearance in bronze, the form of the ovoid-shaped guang did not have a ceramic prototype and was relatively short-lived, made only from the late Shang and into the Western Zhou dynasties (circa eleventh to ninth centuries).

This guang is an exceptional example of the vessel type, with its lid in the form of a toothy bottle-horned dragon, and a taotie (monster mask) frieze on the body of the vessel. Animal imagery often covers early Chinese bronzes; the images are thought to represent Shamanic ideals and powers. Whereas the Brooklyn guang may not be as flamboyant as certain contemporaneous examples, it is superbly cast and elegantly designed, its contours and decorative reliefs sensitively integrated into an organic whole.