Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Dog (Aquarius) (500s): Art, History and Details

Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Dog (Aquarius) (500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The twelve-animal zodiac series—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar—signifies a traditional Chinese concept of time structured in a cyclical order. The twelve animals are also linked to the art of fortune-telling that underlies human existence in connection with the changes of the universe. The use of the twelve zodiac animals as tomb furniture suggests they provided a cosmological structure for the afterlife.

Object facts

• Title: Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Dog (Aquarius)
• Date: 500s
• Culture: China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gray earthenware with traces of slip
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Northern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1972.76.11

A detail from the museum

This set of mortuary figures was donated by the first woman president of the Cleveland Museum of Art's board of trustees, Emery May Holden Norweb.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Weisberg, Gabriel P. and H. W. Janson. Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. Cleveland, Kent, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Distributed by the Kent State University Press, 1975.
• Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (October 1990): 286–323.
• Delacour, Catherine. La Voie du Tao: Un Autre Chemin de l'Etre: Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais, 29 Mars-5 Juillet, 2010. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux: Musée Guimet, 2010.

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.