Bowl with griffin's head

4th-3rd century BCE

For millennia, the Silk Road connected Mediterranean ports to the Central Asian desert to China, Korea, and Japan. This vast network of caravan trails brought foreign goods, ideas, and customs to China. This bowl’s griffin motif—an exotic image from a western civilization—must have stirred the user’s imagination.

Silver, gilt, turquoise, and stone

1 3/4 x 4 x 3 7/8 in. (4.4 x 10.1 x 9.8 cm)

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

46.95

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, "Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective", December 22, 2007 - July 26, 2009 (12/22/2007 - 7/26/2009)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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