Chariot yoke ornament in the shape of a recumbent doe
Chariot yoke ornament in the shape of a recumbent doe

On view

Asian Art
Huo Pavilion

Chariot yoke ornament in the shape of a recumbent doe,

5th–4th century BCE

Chinese
2016-732

Information

Title
Chariot yoke ornament in the shape of a recumbent doe
Dates

5th–4th century BCE

Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
h. 7.8 cm., w. 1.8 cm., d. 8.5 cm. (3 1/16 x 11/16 x 3 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Gillett G. Griffin
Object Number
2016-732
Place Made

Asia, China, Northwest China

Description

This reclining female deer has its head raised and ears pricked to attention. Its legs are folded under its belly with the foreleg hooves facing up and hindleg ones facing down. The bronze was cast using piece molds, leaving a hollow body that was placed over pegs on top of the yoke of chariots used in burial rituals. The circular opening at the front of the doe’s head is characteristic of such ornaments found in the provinces of Ningxia and Gansu in northwest China. The particular arrangement of the hooves has earlier precedents in China, but it also occurs in the fifth-century BC in the Black Sea region.* The sudden appearance of this motif in the West and its relation to northwest China awaits further research.

<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/834191328">Emma C. Bunker, Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes (2002), p. 24.</a>

Culture
Chinese
Period
Western Han
Type
bronzes, finials
Materials
bronze
Subject
deer

–1952 Mathias Komor (New York, NY), sold to Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton, NJ), March 22, 1952.
1952–2016 Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton, NJ), by bequest to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2016.

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