Likely used for serving a liquid such as wine or soup, this bowl is painted with dramatic swirling lines interlaced with small curls and other forms. Known as cloud energy, or yunqi, this design, which was pervasive during the Western Han dynasty, is understood to represent a forbidding but numinous realm inhabited by immortals.
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Artwork Details
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西漢 黑地朱繪雲氣紋漆碗
Title:Bowl with Geometric Designs
Period:Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE)
Date:2nd century BCE
Culture:China
Medium:Black lacquer painted with red lacquer
Dimensions:H. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm); Diam. 10 7/16 in. (26.5 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Gift, 1994
Accession Number:1994.44
[ Susan Chen & Company , Hong Kong, until 1994; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Irving Lacquers," 1998–2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West," October 3, 2000–January 14, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Lacquer," July 18–November 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Lacquer: Painted and Carved," 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Lacquer: An Introduction," December 4, 2007–May 11, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer," August 6, 2009–February 21, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Introduction to Chinese Lacquer," December 11, 2013–July 6, 2014.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Lacquer: Treasures from the Irving Collection, 12th–18th Century," August 15, 2015–June 19, 2016.
Elizabeth J. Milleker, ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, p. 162, fig. 114.
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