Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Stem Cup for an Altar
(China )
Stemmed cups resembling wine vessels used at court figure prominently on Chinese Buddhist altars, where they are placed before devotional images and filled with water. A band of heart-shaped motifs on the stem of this cup evokes the head of the curved scepter carried by Buddhist deities and symbolic of monastic authority. On the bowl of the cup, Tibetan letters mounted above lotus blossoms are surrounded by coiling leaf patterns.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Owned by Mrs. P. R. Lyne, Salisbury MD; given to Walters Art Museum, January 1983.
Geographies
China (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 4 1/4 × Diam: 4 1/8 in. (10.8 × 10.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Ms. P. R. Lyne, 1983
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
49.2518