The bronze ware elephant-figured zun is on of the collections rarest pieces. Generally, a zun is a drinking vessel, which is usually used for royal sacrifice and is made various shapes to showcase royalty and luxury. The inside of this elephant-figured Zun is empty, which can be used for serving wine and there is a square hole on the elephant’s back for pouring in the wine. On the elephant’s belly is the bass-relief of a Taotie, a ferocious mythical combination of a cow, tiger and sheep. Patterns on the elephant’s ears, nose and legs, instead of the patterns on the bottom, are used to emphasize the three-dimensional effect of the animal, which is a distinctive feature of the artworks of Hunan province.
Glazed with elegant colors, porcelains in the Museum Guimet are mostly from Ding kiln (in Hebei province), Jizhou kiln (in Jiangxi province) and Yaozhou kiln (in Shanxi province). “The tomb figure on the camelback” is a color-painted pottery from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which was created in accordance with realistic style of the 6th century. The Pottery camel, used as mortuary object, originated from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) and reached its peak in Tang Dynasty, but it is very rare that a tomb figure and pottery camel appear together, especially with many decorated articles on the camel.
By Feng Hui
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