Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang)
Object Label
This Shang-dynasty gong is the finest Chinese ritual bronze in the Museum’s collection. The lid is shaped like a dragon with a maniacal, toothy grin and protruding horns while the handle forms another beast. On the sides are two demon masks (taotie) with horns, fangs, and bulging eyes, and another two are found under the chin and tail of the beast. In total, twenty dragons, birds, and mythical creatures morph into each other on the lid and body of the vessel, illustrating the spiritual transformation that the ancient Chinese believed occurs when communicating with ancestors, or when leaving this world for the afterlife to become an ancestor oneself. Such vessels were used for pouring wine offerings on ancestral altars or during ritual banquets by Shang kings, who served as the communication links between the living and their ancestors.
Caption
Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang), 13th–11th century B.C.E.. Bronze, 6 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 72.163a-b. Creative Commons-BY
Tags
Collection
Collection
Title
Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang)
Date
13th–11th century B.C.E.
Dynasty
late Shang Dynasty
Period
Shang Dynasty
Geography
Place made: China
Medium
Bronze
Classification
Dimensions
6 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection
Accession Number
72.163a-b
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
What is this object?
This object is known as a "guang" which is a type of wine vessel used in ritual settings in ancient China, it emerged in the Shang Dynasty. It would have been placed on an altar, most likely in a family temple, where bronze vessels held offerings of food and wine given in ritual worship to the ancestors of the living family. This especially elaborate guang is decorated with a dragon and taotie (or demon mask) motif. Hot wine inside would have produced steam that poured out of the creature's mouth!What would this be used for?
This is designed to hold wine to be poured in a ritualized setting. The wine would have been hot and steam could escape through the dragon's slightly open mouth making it appear to breathe vapors.Thank you!What country is this from?
That object, known as a Guang, comes from China during the Shang Dynasty (13th-11th century B.C.E.).This is really cool! What animal is it?
The lid is shaped like a dragon but it also has a handle that forms a different beast. Two demon masks with horns, bulging eyes, and fangs also decorate the sides.Other dragons, birds, and mythical creatures also make an appearance.Who made this?
This ornate bronze vessel was made by an unknown artist in China during the Shang Dynasty.It looks like a snail not a dragon?
Indeed it does! I thought of a snail as well when I first saw it. But in the Chinese context and during this time period, it would have been recognized as a dragon.
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