Mortuary Figures of the Zodiac Signs (500s): Art, History and Details

Mortuary Figures of the Zodiac Signs (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 Figures of the Zodiac Signs
• Date: 500s
• Culture: China, Northern Wei dynasty (386–534 CE)
• 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

A detail from the museum

These earthenware mortuary figures appear to have been made in molds.

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.