{
"data": {
"id": 147058,
"accession_number": "1972.76.2",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Ox (Taurus), 500s. China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534). Gray earthenware with traces of slip; overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1972.76.2",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Ox (Taurus)",
"creation_date": "500s",
"creation_date_earliest": 500,
"creation_date_latest": 599,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)"
],
"technique": "gray earthenware with traces of slip",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "China - Northern Dynasties",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.226
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 219741,
"title": "La voie du Tao, un autre chemin de l'Etre",
"description": "La voie du Tao, un autre chemin de l'Etre. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (March 29-July 5, 2010).",
"opening_date": "2010-03-29T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA 1975: \"Traditions and Revisions,\" cat. #38a-d",
"opening_date": "1975-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA 1990: \"Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia,\" Bull., 77 (October 1990) cat. 32",
"opening_date": "1990-10-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "RMN/Mus\u00e9e Guimet (organizers). Galeries Pu Grand Palais, Paris (3/29/2010 - 7/5/2010): \"La voie du Tao, un autre chemin de l'Etre\", ex. cat. no. 7.1, p. 124, 126-127.",
"opening_date": "2010-03-29T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mrs. R. Henry [Emery May Holden] Norweb [1895\u20131984], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131972",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1972\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1972.77"
],
"did_you_know": "The lower half of the interior of the figure is hollow.",
"description": "The twelve-animal zodiac series\u2014rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar\u2014signifies a traditional Chinese concept of time structured in a cyclical order. The twelve animals are also linked to the art of fortune-telling that underlies human existence in connection with the changes of the universe. The use of the twelve zodiac animals as tomb furniture suggests they provided a cosmological structure for the afterlife.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60758722"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1972.76.2-mortuary-figure-of-t"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Wilson, J. Keith. \"Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (October 1990): 286\u2013323.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 305",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161297"
},
{
"citation": "Delacour, Catherine. La Voie du Tao: Un Autre Chemin de l'Etre: Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais, 29 Mars-5 Juillet, 2010. Paris: Re\u0301union des Muse\u0301es Nationaux: Muse\u0301e Guimet, 2010.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 126\u2013127",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. \"Zodiac Heads.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 53, no. 4 (July/August 2013): 8\u20139.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 8\u20139; Reproduced: p. 9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2013-04/page/n7/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: July 27, 2013-January 26, 2014, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 20\u201321, fig. 4",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.76.2",
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"creditline": "The Norweb Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": "160b7ab4166e4997bd5c119d19ec2810",
"sketchfab_url": "https://sketchfab.com/models/160b7ab4166e4997bd5c119d19ec2810",
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 147058,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1972-06-12T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "500s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "component",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "1972.76",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-04-08 19:02:41.867000"
}
}