Bucket with Swing Handle
Western Zhou dynasty ( 1046–771 BC ), 1000/950 BCdd
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- 30.8 × 25.1 cm (12 3/16 × 9 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The handled bucket is described in ancient texts as a vessel for carrying wine. This vessel's gently sagging profile is sparsely decorated—dragons with detached, hooked trunks are confined to narrow bands around the neck and lid. Contrasting with these abstract designs are more naturalistic rams' heads at the neck and on the handles, which are sculpted in the round. Such realistic animals appeared as secondary motifs on Shang bronzes but became more prominent during the Western Zhou.
Identical inscriptions are cast inside the bucket and lid: Zi Fu Geng [made for Father Geng of the Zi family]
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
