Tripod Container with Dragon-Head Handle (Zhadou) (500s): Art, History and Details

Tripod Container with Dragon-Head Handle (Zhadou) (500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This dragon, winged chimera (CMA 1980.184), and grotesque monster's face (CMA 1930.731) exhibit uninhibited imagination in the representation of fantastic animals--all are full of energy, vigor, and magical power. Whether as purely sculptural forms or decorative elements of utilitarian vessels, they are characterized by a sensitive modeling of dynamic forms with the typical Chinese elegance of line.

Object facts

• Title: Tripod Container with Dragon-Head Handle (Zhadou)
• Date: 500s
• Culture: China, Southern and Northern Dynasties period (386-589)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.8 cm (9 in.); Diameter of mouth with rim: 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Southern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1983.214

A detail from the museum

The tripod is supported by three splayed legs issuing from mouths of lion heads and ending in pawed feet.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. Fine Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings. 7 December 1983. Sale 5133.
• "Year in Review for 1983." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (February, 1984): 38-79.
• Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286-323.

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.