China, Shang dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1046 BCE) / 1200–1100 BCE
Tripod Cauldron (Ding)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Tripod Cauldron (Ding) as metalwork (China, Shang dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1046 BCE) · 1200–1100 BCE).
The vessel shows a band of silkworms and cicadas in two registers.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this metalwork as bronze.
The museum's collection notes: In ancient China, bronze tripods of the type called ding were made in sets of different sizes to be used in rituals in which grain and meat was offered to the spirits of the ancestors. These bronzes were subsequently both collected items and major scholarly preoccupations in Chinese history. They were prized art treasures that provide source materials for Chinese historiography and antiquity studies. Catalogues of archaic bronzes have been published since the Song dynasty. Scholars studied the bronze inscriptions, typologies, and terminologies, and these studies exerted an impact in the field well before the birth of modern art history and ar
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The Cleveland Museum of ArtTripod Cauldron (Ding)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.