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Basin with Inscribed Figures and Calligraphy
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This bronze basin may have been used for containing purified water. What makes this work charming is its intricate decoration done in silver inlay: the five-character, four-line poems interspersed among images of a child. The poems, which evoke the concept of nonattachment and nonduality, were written by Buddhist monks.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineBasin with Inscribed Figures and Calligraphy (청동 은입사 호 [靑銅銀入絲兩耳壺]), 1100s–1200s. Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). Bronze; overall: 17 cm (6 11/16 in.); diameter of mouth with rim: 21.7 cm (8 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1985.112
