Chicken-Headed Ewer (220–589 CE): Art, History and Details

Chicken-Headed Ewer (220–589 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The development of high-fired celadon in the south was a significant achievement in Chinese ceramics history. The ewer's shape was indigenous and appeared to have been transformed from the hu (jar) attached with a small chicken head. Whereas the early chicken-headed ewers have a wide, stout body, this example represents a further development toward more elongated proportions, adding the decoration of carved lotus petals.

Object facts

• Title: Chicken-Headed Ewer
• Date: 220–589 CE
• Culture: China, Zhejiang province, Southern Dynasties period (420-589)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: green-glazed stoneware with incised, carved and applied decoration, Yue ware
• Dimensions: Overall: 23.5 cm (9 1/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Southern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1973.84

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. MacDonald

Further reading listed by the museum

• Trubner, Henry. Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period Through Ch'ien Lung; A Loan Exhibition from Collections in America and Japan. March 14 to April 27, 1952. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1952.
• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78.
• Neils, Jenifer. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.