{
"data": {
"id": 147062,
"accession_number": "1972.76.6",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Serpent (Virgo), 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, 1972.76.6",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mortuary Figure of the Zodiac Sign: Serpent (Virgo)",
"creation_date": "500s",
"creation_date_earliest": 500,
"creation_date_latest": 600,
"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,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302145,
"title": "Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture",
"description": "Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).",
"opening_date": "1975-09-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310291,
"title": "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia",
"description": "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 25, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-07-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"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": []
},
"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": [
"1972.81"
],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"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 fortunetelling 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/Q60747165"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1972.76.6-mortuary-figure-of-t"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Weisberg, Gabriel P. and H. W. Janson. Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. Cleveland, Kent, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Distributed by the Kent State University Press, 1975.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 38a-d",
"url": ""
},
{
"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: cat. no. 7.1, 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/1972.76.6",
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"date_created": "2009-12-02T14:26:42",
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"creditline": "The Norweb Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": "241755b53a374f02ae48a1961e665a3b",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1972-06-12T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 500,
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"date_text": "500s",
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"updated_at": "2026-09-23 15:04:08.094000"
}
}