Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Ritual food vessel, or ding, with taotie mask pattern

Glossary (2)

ding, taotie

  • ding

    A Chinese bronze tripod ritual cooking vessel. Also a type of white porcelain from Northern China.

  • taotie

    Stylized monster mask decoration with prominent eyes and scrolling horns. The motif has been known since the 1100s. Its significance remains mysterious.

Location

    • Ground floor | Room 10 | China to 800

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

    The Barlow Collection

    The piece has a hemispherical bowl with an everted angular rim with two arched handles, and is raised on three flat, curved, blade-shaped legs. The bowl is decorated with a band of taotie design with three masks centred on and separated by raised flanges, each rendered in low relief with eyes, ears and fangs and the body stylized into scrollwork with a claw identifiable, all on a scrollwork (leiwen) ground. The bronze is thickly encrusted with green patina. A clan sign depicting a halberd enclosed in a cross-shaped surround in the form of the character ya is cast below the rim inside.

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