Jade Plaque
-475–-221
- Medium
- nephrite
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20.8 x 8.7 cm (8 3/16 x 3 7/16 in.)
- Genre
- jade
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
China, Henan province, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), Warring States period (475–221 BCE)
About
This beautiful pair of late Eastern Zhou openwork jade plaques illustrate a level of creativity and technical achievement that was unequaled before or since. Taking the shape of a pair of fantastic creatures, they are at once tigerlike, rhinolike, and dragonlike. Their strong silhouettes are marked with shallow relief bands, and their subtly swelling embellished surfaces are finished to the same degree on both sides.