Cylindrical Container with Cover (Lian) (100 BCE–100 CE): Art, History and Details

Cylindrical Container with Cover (Lian) (100 BCE–100 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This magnificent gilded bronze vessel with openwork decoration shows all kinds of fabulous creatures, real and imaginary, chasing each other among swirling scrolls. There is an emphasis on the unbroken rhythms of movement, rather than the ferocity of animals in combat. Cylindrical bronze vessels in this shape, called lian, were often used as cosmetic boxes.

Object facts

• Title: Cylindrical Container with Cover (Lian)
• Date: 100 BCE–100 CE
• Culture: China, Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gilt bronze with openwork and chased designs
• Dimensions: Diameter: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); Overall: 17.2 cm (6 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1972.44.b

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 60, no. 3, 1973, pp. 63–115.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.