Exhibition

Celebrating the Year of the Ox

January 30, 2021–January 17, 2022
Previously on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 207
Exhibitions are free with Museum admission.

The traditional East Asian lunar calendar consists of a repeating 12–year cycle, with each year corresponding to one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The association of these creatures with the Chinese calendar began in the third century B.C. and became firmly established by the first century A.D. The 12 animals are, in sequence: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each is believed to embody certain traits that are manifested in the personalities of the people born in that year. This Lunar New Year, which begins on February 12, 2021, is the Year of the Ox.

In celebration of the Year of the Ox, this exhibition presents depictions of oxen and water buffalo (considered the same category of animals in China) created by artists in the last 3,000 years. Particularly notable are a massive eighteenth-century jade sculpture of a water buffalo and a remarkable eighth-century set of ceramic Chinese zodiac figures, illustrating the important role that the animals play in the life of humans.

The exhibition is made possible by the Joseph Hotung Fund.

Exhibition Objects

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Wine Container in the Shape of an Ox, Bronze, China
China
Water Buffalo, Jade (nephrite), China
China
13th–11th century BCE
Recumbent Ox, Bronze inlaid with gold and jade (nephrite), China
China
Water Buffalo, Jade (nephrite), China
China
18th century
Herdboy with Water Buffalo, Cloisonné, gilded bronze, China
China
late 17th–early 18th century
Boy with water buffalo, Jade (nephrite), China
China
18th century
Twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, Jade (nephrite), China
China
18th–19th century
Herdboy Riding a Water Buffalo, Porcelain with colored enamels on the biscuit (Jingdezhen ware), China
China
late 17th–early 18th century
Chinese Zodiac Animal: Ox, Gilded bronze, China
China
7th–8th century
Zodiac Figure of an Ox, Glazed stoneware, China
China
Set of twelve zodiac animals, Earthenware with white slip, China
China
8th century
Marquee: Water Buffalo (detail). Chinese, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 18th century. Jade (nephrite). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, 1936