2-732-548 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Jar with Scenes of Frolicking Monkeys, 1302. To make this vessel, a wooden form was covered with successive layers of lacquer, the clear sap of the highly toxic Rhus verniciflua tree. This time-consuming process requires each layer to dry before adding another. Lacquer was, therefore, an expensive status symbol; aristocrats prized lacquered architectural features, furniture, musical instruments, and serving vessels. This jar is particularly noteworthy as the only surviving lacquer jar with a narrative scene from the period, showing a family of monkeys trying to cross a river at the bottom.