On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Ritual grain container (gui)
This vessel is from a special order of ritual bronzes by a high official for the Confucian temple in Kunshan. Its design inspiration comes from Xuanhe bogutu, a catalogue of the twelfth-century imperial collection. A comparison of the vessels to the woodblock illustrations shows that they accurately and beautifully replicated their prototypes’ forms and decoration.
Inscription
周太師望簋
明監察御史張淮， 時成化甲辰歲巡按南畿， 命通判蘇州府事邵福， 李智依圖造於崑山縣之廟學
Vessel gui of the Grand Preceptor Wang of the Zhou dynasty.
In the jiachen year of the Chenghua reign [1484], Zhang Huai, the Investigating Censor of the Ming, inspected Nanji and ordered Shao Fu and Li Zhi … to make [this vessel] in accordance with the diagram [from Xuanhe bogutu] for the Confucian school of Kunshan County.
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