id: 117940 accession number: 1938.9 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.9 updated: 2020-07-08 09:00:07.417000 Cranes and Serpents, 475-221 BC. China, reportedly from Hunan province, Changsha, Warring States period (475-221 BC), State of Chu (c. 1046-223 BC). Lacquered wood with polychromy; overall: 132.1 x 124.5 cm (52 x 49 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.9 title: Cranes and Serpents title in original language: 蛇座鳳鳥鼓架 series: series in original language: creation date: 475-221 BC creation date earliest: 475 creation date latest: 221 current location: 241A Arts of Ancient China creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: China, reportedly from Hunan province, Changsha, Warring States period (475-221 BC), State of Chu (c. 1046-223 BC) technique: lacquered wood with polychromy department: Chinese Art collection: China - Zhou Dynasty type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 132.1 x 124.5 cm (52 x 49 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00 The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Survey of Early Chinese Art. Yamanaka & Co., New York, NY (January 1938). --- PROVENANCE (Mr. Umekichi Asano [1877-1960], Ōsaka, Japan) date: 1934 or later-before 1938 footnotes: citations: * Misugi, Takatoshi 三杉隆敏. Chūgoku kinseki tōji zukan [中國金石陶瓷圖鑑 = Old Chinese Art]. Ōsaka: Chūgoku Kinseki Tōji Zukan Kankōkai, 1961. page number: Reproduced: no. 33 url: (Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1938 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1938- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The drum stand was discovered in the mid-1930s near Changsha, Hunan province, by crews digging a route for railroad tracks. digital description: wall description: A different style of ritual art developed in the state of Chu in South China. In addition to bronze vessels, lacquered wood artifacts expanded the repertory of ritual implements.

This extraordinary sculpture was probably a drum stand for supporting a suspended drum in ritual ceremonies. It is unique among other excavated drum stands of the Chu, which typically show two birds standing on tigers. The theme of the bird stepping on the serpent was common in the Chu visual culture. Yet the slender proportions and seemingly flimsy structure of this particular set raise the question of whether it was utilitarian or mostly served symbolic functions in the tomb.

The birds' and serpents' bodies have designs painted in red lacquer and yellow pigment against the black lacquer. Scientific analyses confirm the additional use of a blue or green pigment that has been discolored over time. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 and Mizuno Seiichi 水野清一. "Wooden Cranes and Snakes, decorated with Lacquer, said to have been discovered in Chang-sha, China" [傳長沙出土の漆畫雙鶴雙蛇に就いて]. Bijutsu Kenkyū [美術硏究 = Journal of the Japanese Art History Society] no. 72 (December 1937), pp. 487-491. page number: Reproduced: pp. 489, 490, pl. V-VII url: Hollis, Howard C. “Cranes and Serpents.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 25, no. 8, 1938, pp. 147–151, 159. page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: pp. 147-151 and 159 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137954 Morgan, Whitney. “Museum Accessions.” Parnassus, vol. 11, no. 1, 1939, pp. 37–41. page number: Reproduced: p. 37 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/771774 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 805 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n143 Consten, Eleanor von Erdberg. Das Alte China. Stuttgart: G. Kilpper, 1958. page number: Reprodcued: pl. 71. p. 107, 244 url: Misugi, Takatoshi 三杉隆敏. Chūgoku kinseki tōji zukan [中國金石陶瓷圖鑑 = Old Chinese Art]. Ōsaka: Chūgoku Kinseki Tōji Zukan Kankōkai, 1961. page number: Reproduced: no. 33 url: Tucci, Giuseppe, and Antonio Gargano. Le Civiltà dell'Oriente ... Sotto la dir. di Giuseppe Tucci vol. 4 Arte [Roma]: G. Casini, 1962. page number: p. 1100 url: Jenyns, Soame, and William Watson. Chinese Art: The Minor Arts. New York: Universe Books, 1963. page number: p. 286 url: Fontein, Jan. "The Oriental Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art." Apollo: A Journal of the Arts 78 (December 1963): 468-469. page number: pp. 468-469 url: Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964. page number: Reproduced: pp. 52-53 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 246 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n270 Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: pl. 52 url: Luzzatto-Bilitz, Oscar. Lacche orientali. Milano: Fratelli Fabbri, 1966. page number: Reproduced: pl. 1 url: Watson, William. Early Civilization in China. London: Thames & Hudson, 1966. page number: p. 129 url: Riviere, Jean Roger. "El Arte de la China." Summa artis, historia general del arte 20 (1966) page number: p. 219 url: Alsop, Joseph. "Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art." Art in America 54 no. 3 (May-June 1966). pp. 21-44. page number: Reproduced: p. 22 url: Alsop, Joseph. "Les Chefs-d'Oeuvre de Premiere Importance du Second Musee des Etats-Unis." Connaissance des arts 172 (June 1966). page number: p. 63 url: Munsterberg, Hugo. Der Ferne Osten. Baden-Baden: Holle, 1968. page number: Reproduced: p. 33 url: Aida, Yūji. Sekai rekishi shirīzu [世界歴史シリーズ = World History Series]. Vol. 3 Kodai Chūgoku 古代中国. Tōkyō: Sekai Bunkasha, 1968. page number: Reproduced: p. 80 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 246 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n270 Froncek, Thomas, ed. and Hugh Honour. The Horizon Book of the Arts of China. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1969. page number: p. 265 url: Kadokawa Shoten, ed. A Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Oriental Arts: China. Vol.1. New York: Crown Publishers, 1969. page number: p. 10 url: Fricke, Berthold, editor. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970. page number: Reproduced: p. 94 url: Barnard, Noel. "Some Remarks upon the Origin and the Nature of the Art of Ch'u." in Waikato University China Papers: Proceedings of the First New Zealand International Conference on Chinese Studies, University of Waikato, Hamilton New Zealand, 17-20 May 1972. Dov Bing, ed. Hamilton, New Zealand: Conference on Chinese Studies, 1972. page number: Reproduced: fig. 6:12 url: Cooper, Barbara, and Maureen Matheson, editors. The World Museums Guide. London: Threshold Books Ltd, 1973. page number: p. 78 url: Glubok, Shirley. The Art of China. New York: Macmillan, 1973. page number: p. 24 url: Ridley, Michael. Treasures of China. New York: Arco Pub. Co, 1974. page number: p. 36 url: T'an Tan-chiung. "The Fei-i and the Paired Dragon and Phoenix" [«肥遺» 和 «龍鳳配»]. Dong Wu da xue Zhongguo yi shu shi ji kan [東吳大學中國藝術史集刊 = Soochow University journal of Chinese art history vol. 6 (September 1976): pp. 1-32. page number: Reproduced: Pl. XV url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 327 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n347 Watson, William. L'art de l'ancienne Chine. Paris: Mazenod, 1979. page number: Reproduced: pl. 180 url: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan [National Palace Museum = 國立故宮博物院]. Hai wai yi zhen. Qi qi [Chinese art in overseas collections. Lacquerware = 海外遺珎. 漆器]. Taibei Shi Shilin qu Waishuangxi: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1987. page number: Reproduced: pl. 2 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 9 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n24 Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. page number: Reproduced: pp. 30-31 url: Kontler, Christine. Arts et sagesses de la Chine. [Saint-Léger-Vauban]: Zodiaque, 2000. page number: Reproduced: pl. no. 24, pp. 71-72 url: Scarpari, Maurizio. Ancient China: Chinese civilization from the origins to the Tang Dynasty. Vercelli: White Star, 2000. page number: Reproduced: no. 214, p. 214 url: Watson, William. The Arts of China 900-1620. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. page number: Reproduced: figs. 122-123 url: May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Reproduced: no. 77, p. 73; Mentioned: p. 118 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.9/1938.9_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.9/1938.9_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.9/1938.9_full.tif