Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Serpent (Virgo)
500s
- Medium
- gray earthenware with traces of slip
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- The Norweb Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this 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 fortunetelling 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.
