id: 157341 accession number: 1994.203 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.203 updated: 2023-03-20 14:14:22.313000 Mat Weight in the Form of a Bear, 202 BC–AD 9. China, Western Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 9). Gilt bronze; overall: 15.7 x 14.6 x 17.3 cm (6 3/16 x 5 3/4 x 6 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1994.203 title: Mat Weight in the Form of a Bear title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 202 BC–AD 9 creation date earliest: -202 creation date latest: 9 current location: 241B Arts of Ancient China creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: China, Western Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 9) technique: gilt bronze department: Chinese Art collection: China - Han Dynasty type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 15.7 x 14.6 x 17.3 cm (6 3/16 x 5 3/4 x 6 13/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Recarving China's Past: The Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines" opening date: 2005-03-04T00:00:00 Recarving China's Past: The Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines". Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (organizer) (March 4-June 26, 2005). title: A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China opening date: 2006-10-04T00:00:00 A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China . Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (October 4, 2006-January 14, 2007). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Chinesische Kunst: zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst [Chinese art; two hundred main works from the exhibition of the Society for East Asian Art]. Der Preussischen Akademie der Künste [Prussian Academy of Arts], Berlin, Germany (1929). --- PROVENANCE Adolphe Stoclet [1871–1949], Palais Stoclet, Brussels, Belgium, to his daughter Raymonde Feron-Stoclet date: ? by 1929–? footnotes: *
1929 Chinesische Kunst exhibition catalogue, pls. 36–38, lists its owner  as "Herr A. Stoclet, Brüssels."
citations: Mme. Raymonde Feron-Stoclet [1897–1963], Brussels, Belgium, to her son Denis Feron date: footnotes: citations: Denis Lucien Émile Feron [1928–2015], Hartford, IL, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?–1994 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1994– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Bear imagery, which symbolized heroic power, was particularly popular during the Han dynasty. digital description: wall description: The bear imagery was particularly popular during the Han dynasty and was a metaphor of heroic power. This heavy, solid bear was probably used as a mat weight; other small squatting bears often served as the legs of vessels. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Kümmel, Otto. Chinesische Kunst; zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in der Preussischen Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929, herausgegeben von Otto Kümmel. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1930. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 24 and pls. XXXVI–XXXVIII url: Visser, H. F. E. Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium. Amsterdam: "De Spieghel" Pub. Co, 1948. page number: Mentioned: pp. 50–51; Reproduced: pp. 208–211, pls. 64 and 65, no. 131 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, “New Acquisitions Enter the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection,” February 14, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr3939 Wilson, J. Keith. "Party Animal" The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine, October 1995, pp. 8–9. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 8–9 url: Wilson, J. Keith., "Party Animal", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 35 no. 08, October 1995 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1995-08/page/8 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. 32–33 url: Cox, Daniel J., and Rebecca L. Grambo. Bear: A Celebration of Power and Beauty. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 2000. page number: p. 20 url: Liu, Cary Y., Michael Nylan, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Naomi Noble Richard, Michael Loewe, and Susan L. Beningson. Recarving China's Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines". Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2005. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 47, p. 417 url: Luhrs, Kathleen. "Calendar." Antiques (Oct 2006): p. 92. page number: url: Wang, Michelle C., Guolong Lai, Roel Sterckx, and Eugene Yuejin Wang. A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China. Boston, MA: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2006. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 5, pp. 87–88 url: Lawton, Thomas. "The Stoclets: Their Milieu and Their Collection." Orientations 44.1 (January/February 2013): pp. 68–73. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 72, fig 7 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. 94 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1994.203/1994.203_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1994.203/1994.203_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1994.203/1994.203_full.tif