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Collection

1100-1200

Flower-Shaped Cup

Artist/maker unknown

This elegant, six-lobed cup is made from nephrite jade, a material venerated in China for its ritual significance, association with gentlemanly virtures, and physical properties, holding a place equivalent to that of gold in the West. Connoisseurs of the time appreciated this understated material and celebrated the purity of the form and texture of the stone, here emphasized by the absence of decoration in this cup.

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Resources

Art of China Teacher Resources

This teaching resource highlights fifteen works of art that reflect the diversity of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection and exemplify five important historical themes.
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Art of China classroom presentation

This teaching resource highlights fifteen works of art that reflect the diversity of the museum’s collection and exemplify five important historical themes: religious beliefs, belief in the afterlife, exchange between China and the West, reverence for the natural world, and auspiciousness. These themes and the objects that represent them do not exist in isolation but are deeply interwoven in the fabric of Chinese history and culture.
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