id: 97491 accession number: 1917.1057 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1917.1057 updated: Comma-shaped Jade, AD 400s. Korea, Three Kingdoms period (57 BC-668). Jade; overall: 8 x 4.9 x 3.1 cm (3 1/8 x 1 15/16 x 1 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1917.1057 title: Comma-shaped Jade title in original language: 곱은 옥 (曲玉) series: series in original language: creation date: AD 400s creation date earliest: 400 creation date latest: 499 current location: 236 Korean creditline: Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust copyright: --- culture: Korea, Three Kingdoms period (57 BC-668) technique: jade department: Korean Art collection: Korean Art type: Jewelry find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 8 x 4.9 x 3.1 cm (3 1/8 x 1 15/16 x 1 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Other Side of the Story - Korean Gallery 236 Rotation opening date: 2020-10-30T04:00:00 The Other Side of the Story - Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27, 2020-April 25, 2021). title: Interpretation of Materiality: Gold (Korean art rotation) opening date: 2021-04-29T04:00:00 Interpretation of Materiality: Gold (Korean art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 29-October 24, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1917 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1917- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This unique shaped jade was used as a pendant to decorate necklaces, eyerings, and crowns during the Three Kingdoms period. digital description: Jade is one of the hardest stones and requires an intensive, arduous process of abrasion—cutting, chiseling, grinding, and polishing—to achieve the desired shape. A grindstone and a slurry of grit and water shape the jade into the desired form, and then a cloth dampened and rubbed with finer grit may have been used to give the jade the smooth surface. For the Silla kingdom (57 BC–985), in particular, comma-shaped jades served as an essential item for the burials of the ruling class and were luxurious accessories to decorate golden crowns. Their comma shape is thought to represent embryonic forms, symbolizing life, particularly rebirth in the afterlife. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Golden Splendors: the Royal Tomb of Silla Hwangnamdaechong [황남대총: 황금의 나라 신라의왕릉]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2010. page number: url: Kim, Yang-dong. “ A cultural examination of the origin and symbol of comma-shaped jades of ancient Korea [고대 한국 曲玉의 기원과 상징에 대한 문화사적 검토].” Silla sahakbo 25 (2012): 401-436. page number: url: https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE02441742 Lee, Soyoung, and Denise Patry Leidy. Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013. page number: url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 248 url: Nelson, Sarah. Gyeongju: The Capital of Golden Silla. Routledge, 2019. page number: url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1917.1057/1917.1057_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1917.1057/1917.1057_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1917.1057/1917.1057_full.tif