Ingeniously shaped out of a massive dark green nephrite boulder from the riverbed of Yarkand, in northwestern China, this sculpture weighs more than forty pounds. The cunning naturalistic details, including a whorl of hair on the animal’s forehead, demonstrate the observant eye of a master carver in the eighteenth century.
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Artwork Details
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清 碧玉水牛
Title:Water Buffalo
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:18th century
Culture:China
Medium:Jade (nephrite)
Dimensions:H. 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm); W. 8 5/8 in. (21.9 cm); L. 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm)
Classification:Jade
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, 1936
Accession Number:36.121
Mary Stillman Harkness , New York (until 1936; donated to MMA)
New York. China House Gallery. "Chinese Jade Through the Centuries from Private and Museum Collections," October 24, 1968–January 26, 1969.
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. "Jade, East and West," January 25, 1980–March 2, 1980.
San Diego Museum of Art. "5000 Years of Art," October 11, 1981–December 6, 1981.
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "5000 Years of Art," January 10, 1982–February 7, 1982.
Mobile. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "5000 Years of Art," March 30, 1982–May 9, 1992.
Midland Art Center. "5000 Years of Art," June 13, 1982–August 25, 1982.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "5000 Years of Art," September 19, 1982–November 14, 1982.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ming Furniture Room," 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Re-Installation of The Ming Furniture Room," 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Year of the Ox," January 30, 2021–January 23, 2022.
Joseph Bell. Metropolitan Zoo. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.
Hartman-Goldsmith, Joan. Chinese Jade. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 67, fig. 36.
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