Ritual Food Vessel

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Bronze three-lobed bowl with three tubular legs and two "u"-shaped handles on the rim.

Culture Chinese

Title Ritual Food Vessel (Liding)

Date 1300–1045 BCE

Medium Bronze

Dimensions Overall: 8 1/8 × 7 1/16 in. (20.6 × 17.9 cm)
Overall: 8 1/8 × 7 1/16 in. (20.6 × 17.9 cm)

Credit Line William Lowe Bryan Memorial, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 58.41

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About this Work

Bronze vessels such as this liding held food offered to ancestors. This particular shape was used for stewing meats. Vessels like this one could be used either in rites performed on an ancestral altar, or they may have been cast specifically for burial with the dead in their tombs. The animal forms and spirals that cover most of the surface of this liding are found on many bronze vessels, but there is no agreement among scholars as to what these designs may mean or even if they are meaningful.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Ritual Food Vessel | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=58.41