Wenjiu zun vase

This type of vase was used to contain alcohol. Its three feet, which raise the tank, made it possible to heat or reheat the drink by placing the container on a hearth. There are many examples of wenjiu zun in tombs from the late Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD) and early Eastern Han (25 – 220). The pieces most similar to those in the Cernuschi Museum were mostly found in southern China.

The funerary destination of this container justifies the dense iconography that covers its walls and lid. The winged animals that serve as feet for the vase as well as the passing felines, organized in two registers superimposed on the body, are thus motifs that are regularly found in the architectural decorations of burials. The cover, in the shape of a mountain populated by an abundant bestiary, evokes islands supposedly inhabited by immortals, to the east of the Chinese mainland. These references to an imaginary linked to Taoism also explain the presence, at the top of the object, of an avian motif. This could just as well be the vermilion bird, which symbolizes the south and is very often associated in tombs with other animals of the four orients, or a peacock, animal-attribute of a major deity of this religion: the queen -mother of the West (Xiwangmu).

Cartel:

Vase wenjiu zun
Eastern Han (25 – 220), China
Bronze
H.33cm; D.23cm
MC 9892

Gift of the Antoni Laurent Foundation and the Society of Friends of the Cernuschi Museum, 1992

Photo credit :

© Paris Museums / Cernuschi Museum

Wenjiuzun vase (Used name), 0025. Bronze, cast iron. Cernuschi Museum, Museum of Asian Arts of the City of Paris.

Wenjiuzun vase (Used name), 0025. Bronze, cast iron. Cernuschi Museum, Museum of Asian Arts of the City of Paris.

Wenjiuzun vase (Used name), 0025. Bronze, cast iron. Cernuschi Museum, Museum of Asian Arts of the City of Paris.

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