Caleb Richey
11-23-15
Ancient Art 101
Professor Sandra Johnson
Jade Cong: Bowers Museum
The Jade Cong is a detailed piece of art that is composed of two different colors—a grey and a green sort of color (jade). The green section of this piece is circular with a square area on the sides of the “Cong”. In addition, this circular section of the piece represents the heavens while the square part represents the planet Earth. This is a solid piece of art that is about an inch thick and fully designed with many lines and circles that sort of represents faces. In addition, the pieces looks as if it is double stacked. However, the sides of the Jade Cong are four-sided and the tube that is positioned on the top and bottom of this piece helps it stand. As the ancient
Chinese history has it, this was a secular piece because it was made of Jade and is even considered as the “Stone of Heaven”. The Chinese people thought very highly of this work of art and treated it as one of their most precious items. Jade Cong was specifically used for religious purposes along with important ceremonies. Some believe this piece had the power to perform spiritual exorcisms and remove demonic forces from individuals. Historians believed that Jade Cong originated during the Neolithic Period (7000-15000 BC). The artist of this piece used some formal elements on the circular area to show that the demonic forces have left the universe. The Jade Cong wasn’t just hard and solid all-around for just any reason, it was meant to demonstrate that it could survive in any type of weather that the piece came across. The Jade Cong’s shadows are dark, specifically inside the circular part. Now the circular area of this piece was where the power to exorcise demons of the universe was supposedly held, so it makes sense as to why this area of the Jade Cong is dark. Contrast of color and texture is what makes a piece special, in my opinion. The lighting of the Jade Cong comes from the roof of it, which causes a small shadow to form. In addition, the texture of the Cong is really smooth but then the top of the ring seems to be kind of rough from perhaps the weather conditions in China. If a piece of art doesn’t make you feel any type of emotion or feel inspired, then chances are you need to find another piece to look at. This piece made me very curious about the Chinese culture. I only know very little about this specific race of individuals so after examining the Jade Cong, I became very interested in learning more about Chinese people. …show more content…
I consider myself a religious person and to find out that the
Chinese culture believed that this complex stone can bridge the gap between us humans and God immediately peaked my interest. Another perspective that affected me was learning that Jade Cong aka “The
Stone of Heaven” was considered to be used specifically for religious and ceremonial purposes. Considering the fact that this piece of art came from many different places in the Chinese culture like the
Liangzhu culture for example. They were a Neolithic group of people who resided in the Jiangsu province whose tools (Jade) had a reputation of being complex. Having other Chinese cultures believe in the stone’s spiritual power helped the Jade Cong gain popularity across China.
The middle part of this piece is Jade which is not shocking because another meaning of Jade is “the stone of heaven”. So, the name of this piece and interpretation of the work (used for religious purposes) goes hand-in-hand with each other. This beautiful stone had a lot to live up to since the meaning of Jade is “stone of heaven”.
The format of the Jade Cong is basically a tube with a square-like area on the borders and a circular hole that goes through the piece. Now the scale of the Jade Cong can be categorized by two different sizes, one part is pretty large since it’s stacked with a bunch of different lines and another area is small with just one stack of lines. The large part of the piece is where all the power to exorcise spiritual and/or demons from
11-23-15
Ancient Art 101
Professor Sandra Johnson
Jade Cong: Bowers Museum
The Jade Cong is a detailed piece of art that is composed of two different colors—a grey and a green sort of color (jade). The green section of this piece is circular with a square area on the sides of the “Cong”. In addition, this circular section of the piece represents the heavens while the square part represents the planet Earth. This is a solid piece of art that is about an inch thick and fully designed with many lines and circles that sort of represents faces. In addition, the pieces looks as if it is double stacked. However, the sides of the Jade Cong are four-sided and the tube that is positioned on the top and bottom of this piece helps it stand. As the ancient
Chinese history has it, this was a secular piece because it was made of Jade and is even considered as the “Stone of Heaven”. The Chinese people thought very highly of this work of art and treated it as one of their most precious items. Jade Cong was specifically used for religious purposes along with important ceremonies. Some believe this piece had the power to perform spiritual exorcisms and remove demonic forces from individuals. Historians believed that Jade Cong originated during the Neolithic Period (7000-15000 BC). The artist of this piece used some formal elements on the circular area to show that the demonic forces have left the universe. The Jade Cong wasn’t just hard and solid all-around for just any reason, it was meant to demonstrate that it could survive in any type of weather that the piece came across. The Jade Cong’s shadows are dark, specifically inside the circular part. Now the circular area of this piece was where the power to exorcise demons of the universe was supposedly held, so it makes sense as to why this area of the Jade Cong is dark. Contrast of color and texture is what makes a piece special, in my opinion. The lighting of the Jade Cong comes from the roof of it, which causes a small shadow to form. In addition, the texture of the Cong is really smooth but then the top of the ring seems to be kind of rough from perhaps the weather conditions in China. If a piece of art doesn’t make you feel any type of emotion or feel inspired, then chances are you need to find another piece to look at. This piece made me very curious about the Chinese culture. I only know very little about this specific race of individuals so after examining the Jade Cong, I became very interested in learning more about Chinese people. …show more content…
I consider myself a religious person and to find out that the
Chinese culture believed that this complex stone can bridge the gap between us humans and God immediately peaked my interest. Another perspective that affected me was learning that Jade Cong aka “The
Stone of Heaven” was considered to be used specifically for religious and ceremonial purposes. Considering the fact that this piece of art came from many different places in the Chinese culture like the
Liangzhu culture for example. They were a Neolithic group of people who resided in the Jiangsu province whose tools (Jade) had a reputation of being complex. Having other Chinese cultures believe in the stone’s spiritual power helped the Jade Cong gain popularity across China.
The middle part of this piece is Jade which is not shocking because another meaning of Jade is “the stone of heaven”. So, the name of this piece and interpretation of the work (used for religious purposes) goes hand-in-hand with each other. This beautiful stone had a lot to live up to since the meaning of Jade is “stone of heaven”.
The format of the Jade Cong is basically a tube with a square-like area on the borders and a circular hole that goes through the piece. Now the scale of the Jade Cong can be categorized by two different sizes, one part is pretty large since it’s stacked with a bunch of different lines and another area is small with just one stack of lines. The large part of the piece is where all the power to exorcise spiritual and/or demons from