Shallow Basin Supported by a Bird (Bian)
Unknown Artist
early 400s BCE
Medium
bronze inlaid with powdered malachite and azurite
Dimensions
h. 23.3 cm · diameter of base 18.3 cm
Classification
Metalwork
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
1991.8
About this artwork
The bird, in its graceful and dignified pose, firmly grasps a pair of intertwined serpents cast in the lower basin. This composition of the bird's triumph over the serpent has been given various interpretations. The Chinese ethnographers regard this as a totemic symbol—a suggestion of a specific clan's superiority over contending neighboring peoples. Other scholars interpret this as good creatures warding off evil influences or as an early manifestation of the concept of complementary pairing (y...