Art History Animalia

#TwoForTuesday :

Pair of Owl-Shaped Jars

China, Henan province, Western Han dynasty, 206 BCE-9 CE

Amber brown-glazed low-fired pottery

19 x 13.8 x 11.8 cm (7 1/2 x 5 7/16 x 4 5/8 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

2020.178.1-2

“Pottery vessels in the shape of owls were made since Neolithic times and throughout the Bronze Age. These jars in the form of vigilant owls may have provided a tomb occupant with grain in the afterlife. However, the meaning of these mysterious birds and the association of the owl motif with burial sites in China is not fully understood.”

Jar with snakes and giraffes

Egypt, Lower Nubia, Karanog Cemetery

Meroitic Period, 100 BCE - 300 CE

Ceramic, paint; H. 34 cm, Dia. 29.4

Penn Museum E8183

“Undulating snakes curve around the top of this jar. On the frieze below, giraffes - which were native to Upper Nubia - eat from tall trees.”

Another one for #AndeanBearDay:

Spectacled Bear Effigy Jar Chimu, Peru, Late Intermediate Period, c.1300-1470 Blackware, 8 x 3.75 x 4.75 in (20.3 x 9.5 x 12.1 cm) Johnson Museum of Art 56.160

The Andean Bear, aka Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus), is South America's only extant bear species.

For #FroggyFriday:

polychrome clay jar with seated frogs

Egypt, Ballana, Cemetery B, Tomb 208

Meroitic period, Phase IVA (250-270 CE); excavated in 1963-64

Spotted on display at Oriental Institute - University of Chicago.