The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 9, 2024

Tripod Cauldron (Ding)

Tripod Cauldron (Ding)

1200–1100 BCE
(c. 1600–c. 1046 BCE)
bronze
Overall: 14.3 x 12.5 cm (5 5/8 x 4 15/16 in.)
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1960.288
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The vessel shows a band of silkworms and cicadas in two registers.

Description

In ancient China, bronze tripods of the ding-type were made in sets of different sizes to be used in rituals in which grain and meat was offered to the spirits of the ancestors. These bronzes were subsequently both collected items and major scholarly preoccupations in Chinese history. They were prized art treasures that provide source materials for Chinese historiography and antiquity studies. Catalogues of archaic bronzes have been published since the Song dynasty. Scholars studied the bronze inscriptions, typologies, and terminologies, and these studies exerted an impact in the field well before the birth of modern art history and archaeology.
  • ?–1960
    Frank Caro [1904–1980], New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art by exchange
    1960–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Karlgren, B. "Marginalia on some Bronze Albums." BMFEA, 1959, no. 31. Reproduced: pl. 4a
    Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review | 1960.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 10 (December 1960): 223–254. Mentioned: p. 251, no. 38; Reproduced: p. 228, no. 38 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Four Ritual Vases,” March 27, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Ho, Wai-Kam. “Shang and Chou Bronzes.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 7 (September 1964): 175–187. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 177, fig. 2 www.jstor.org
    Wilson, J. Keith. "Lithic Art in the Bronze Age: A Jade Dagger-Axe." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 1 (1990): 2-35. Mentioned: p. 10 www.jstor.org
  • China through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 11, 2022-February 26, 2023).
    The Arts of China from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH (February 27-April 10, 1983).
  • {{cite web|title=Tripod Cauldron (Ding)|url=false|author=|year=1200–1100 BCE|access-date=09 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.288