Curator

  • Art Institute Chicago
  • Harvard art museum
  • My Exhibition
'Chunyu' Bell with Tiger-Form Handle

'Chunyu' Bell with Tiger-Form Handle

Chinese

Tall upright form with oval cross-section, with sides rising to wide, rounded shoulders, surmounted by a flat platform top with neatly finished raised edge and a figure of a tiger at the center for the handle; the stylized feline with long tail and wide jaws, fitted with a collar and decorated with finely detailed linear scroll motifs; three pictograms cast into the flat top, including antlered figures in a boat, a fish, and a human mask, the smooth surface with dark olive green patina. Much like a musical gong, chunyu bells are struck to emit their sounds.

Cast bronze with incised decoration

Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE

Ritual Implements