Hu (Jar) (481–221 BCE): Art, History and Details

Hu (Jar) (481–221 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The hunting scenes in flat, low relief on this vessel are among the earliest pictorial scenes in Chinese art, dating from the beginning of the Late Zhou period (481–221 BC). There are six horizontal bands of low relief designs across the body of the vessel. Each is composed of repeating motifs. The short slightly flaring neck has a narrow band of plait pattern, below which is a vivid hunting scene. The hunter holding a long spear and a sword faces off with a feline covered in circle patterns. The main body of the vessel is decorated with two wide bands of interlacing dragons, separated by a band with another hunting scene. This hunter faces two horned beasts whose rear leg has been pierced by a spear. The repeating pattern in the lowest band features two long-legged birds and a small fish.

Object facts

• Title: Hu (Jar)
• Date: 481–221 BCE
• Culture: China, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), Warring States period (475–221 BCE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 25.5 cm (10 1/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Zhou Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1975.62

A detail from the museum

On the vessel’s shoulders are applied taotie masks from which stem vertical loops for holding the vessel possibly with a rope.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Chinese Exhibition; A Commemorative Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, November 1935-March 1936. London: Faber and Faber, 1936.
• Sirén, Osvald. A History of Early Chinese Art. London: E. Benn, Limited, 1929.
• Kümmel, Otto. Chinesische Kunst; zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in der Preussischen Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929, herausgegeben von Otto Kümmel. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1930.

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.