Tripod Cauldron (Ding)
Unknown Artist
1200–1100 BCE
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
14.3 × 12.5 cm
Classification
Metalwork
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
Accession Number
1960.288
About this artwork
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 b...