Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Wine Container (Fang) with Geometric Patterns
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE)
Not on view
This magnificent vessel, meticulously inlayed with stylized clouds and geometric patterns, boasts a robust form and two animal-mask ring handles. It functioned as a wine container. Both historical texts and inscriptions on bronzes indicate that a vessel in this form was called fang, meaning “square-shaped vessel.” Inherited from the Warring States period (475–221 B.C.), the fang gained popularity during the Western Han but disappeared in the Eastern Han.
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