Images

This was probably used to support a vessel. The surface of the animal is entirely covered with incised spiraling decoration. Made in Houma. Eastern Zhou period, 6th to 5th century BCE. From Modern-day China. (The British Museum, London).

This is one of a set of Bo, of which a number still survives, made at the Jin State foundry at Houma. The decoration on the bell was made by using pattern blocks, so that exactly the same motifs, made with the same set of blocks, appear on...

Cong is the name given to a type of jade of unknown purpose, found in burials of the Neolithic period in Southeast China. The Cong has a square cross-section with a cylindrical hole. Congs are often decorated at the corners with faces, each...

The "you" type bronze ritual vessel is a form of a lidded vessel. The container was made by adjoining two birds back to back. Shang Dynasty, 13th to 12th century BCE. From modern-day China. (The British Museum, London).

A "hu" is a type of wine vessel which displays a pear-shaped cross-section. This bronze carries a fine example of the monster face, known as taotie, shown in the main central panel, with its eyes on each side of the central vertical line...

Bodhisattvas are enlighted beings who have chosen to stay in the world to help others achieve Buddhahood. Avalokitesvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, known in Chinese as Guanyin. Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, "he who listens to the...

This container, presumably for wine, is flanked by the heads and forequarters of two rams. The rams are very lifelike and this realistic style of decoration suggests it might have been made in Hunan province. Shang Dynasty, 13th to 12th century...

A model of the medieval Benedictine monastery of Cluny Abbey in France, founded in the early 10th century CE.

A stained glass window from Saint-Corentin Cathedral, Quimper, France, showing two kneeling Franciscan monks.

A 13th century CE illuminated manuscript showing a monk tasting wine as he draws off a jug from a barrel. ('Li Livres dou Santé', British Library, London)