Recumbent Bull (700s): Art, History and Details

Recumbent Bull (700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In China, access to political power was granted to those who passed the civil service examinations, a system that offered official service only at a high level of education. Chinese literati-officials whose daily routine was administrative work in an office, enjoyed precious objects on their writing table that offered distraction and demonstrated good taste, as well as the pleasure of holding and handling them. By the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, these utensils of the literati studio also became collectibles and were treasured as artworks. Made of solid gilt-bronze, this paperweight in the form of a recumbent bull was meant to be placed on a scholar’s desk. Oxen were precious livestock as they could pull carts and plows. Often depicted in landscape paintings and in pictures of tilling the spring soil, the bull’s nature was traditionally likened to the willingness of a loyal civil servant who bears the burden of hard labor without complaint.

Object facts

• Title: Recumbent Bull
• Date: 700s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 3.5 x 7 cm (1 3/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1985.74

A detail from the museum

This solid-cast bronze bull has carefully defined skin folds on its neck.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Watson, William. Eskenazi: Twenty Five Years: Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Gilt Bronzes, Inlaid Bronzes, Silver, Jades, Ceramics: 12 June-12 July 1985. London: Eskenazi Galleries, 1985.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (1986): 26–71.
• Eskenazi, Giuseppe, and Hajni Elias. A Dealer's Hand: The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi. London, England: Scala, 2012.

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.