id: 130939 accession number: 1953.628 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.628 updated: 2021-05-07 09:01:30.598000 Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head, c. 4700-2920 BC. Northeast China, Neolithic period, probably Hongshan culture (4700-2920 BC). Jade (nephrite); overall: 13.2 cm (5 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Severance A. Millikin 1953.628 title: Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head title in original language: 牛首玉人 series: series in original language: creation date: c. 4700-2920 BC creation date earliest: -4710 creation date latest: -2910 current location: 241A Arts of Ancient China creditline: Gift of Severance A. Millikin copyright: --- culture: Northeast China, Neolithic period, probably Hongshan culture (4700-2920 BC) technique: jade (nephrite) department: Chinese Art collection: China - Neolithic type: Jade find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 13.2 cm (5 3/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture opening date: 1956-09-06T04:00:00 Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956). title: Chinese Jade opening date: 1962-11-30T05:00:00 Chinese Jade. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (November 30, 1962-February 3, 1963). title: Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture opening date: 1975-09-24T04:00:00 Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975). title: Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions opening date: 1994-10-18T04:00:00 Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994). title: Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2009-06-27T04:00:00 Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE John L. Severance [1863-1936], Cleveland, OH date: footnotes: citations: Severance A. Millikin [1895-1985], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?-1953 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1953- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: CMA daringly acquired this masterpiece without knowing exactly what it was. Only after Chinese archaeologists started excavating similar jades in Northeast China could it be attributed to the Hongshan culture. digital description: wall description: With a bovine head and four horns, this seated figurine was a powerful ritual and shamanic symbol. Drill holes above its shoulders form two interconnected perforations for suspension, suggesting that the jade was originally used as a pendant, presumably by the shaman performing the tasks of journeying to and communicating with the supernatural realms. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS "Schamenendarstellungen," Asia Major 1, 1 (1944): p. 62. page number: url: Lee, Sherman E. “More Early Chinese Jades.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 41, no. 10, 1954, pp. 215–217. page number: Mentioned: pp. 215-217; Reproduced: fig. 1 (line drawing) url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141999 Consten, Eleanor von Erdberg. Das Alte China. Stuttgart: G. Kilpper, 1958. page number: Mentioned: pp. 78, 244; Reproduced: pl. 43 url: Chinese Jade. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania [Museum], 1962. page number: no. 150 url: Salmony, Alfred. Chinese Jade; Through the Wei Dynasty. New York: Ronald Press, 1963. page number: pp. 218-219, 227, pl. 35:4 url: Chêng Tê-K'un. “Some Standing Jade Figurines of the Shang-Chou Period.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 28, no. 1, 1966, pp. 39–52. page number: Mentioned: pp. 48-49; Reproduced: fig. 10 url: www.jstor.org/stable/3249315 Hansford, S. Howard. Chinese Carved Jades. London: Faber, 1968. page number: Reproduced: pp. 83-85, pl. 56 url: Froncek, Thomas, and Hugh Honour. The Horizon Book of the Arts of China. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1969. page number: p. 69 url: Erickson, Ernest, Jan Wirgin, and Ulf Abel. The Ernest Erickson collection in Swedish museums. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1989. page number: pp. 10-11 url: Forsyth, Angus. "Five Chinese Jade Figures: Study of the Development of Sculptural Form in Hongshan Neolithic Jade Working." Orientations, 21, 5 (1990). page number: Reproduced: p. 60, figs. 8-8b url: Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347. page number: Reproduced: p. 275; Mentioned: p. 275, 277, 346 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161465 Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 22-w3 url: Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (2009). page number: Reproduced: p. 29, fig. 2 url: Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 12-13 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_full.tif