Architectural Fitting (Gong)
China (Qishan county, Shaanxi province)
Western Zhou dynasty, c.1050–770 B.C.
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- 22 × 48.9 × 10.2 cm (8 5/8 × 19 1/4 × 4 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
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This is one of sixteen hollow bronze fittings in the museum's collection that together comprise rectangular, L-shaped, and cylindrical pieces. In 1973, fittings of similar shape and design were excavated from the site of a palace of the 7th century B.C. in modern-day Fengxiang, Shaanxi province in north China. Most show tightly interlaced surface patterns like those cast in this piece. Archaeologists have conjectured that these fittings, some of which preserve traces of wood, originally served as collars and sleeves that had been socketed over a framework of timber columns and tie beams embedded into the earthen walls. Some of these pieces may originally have been stuffed with silk to tighten them.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
