You Wine Vessel, 12th-11th Century BCE

You Wine Vessel, 12th-11th Century BCE, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. From [artsmia.org](www.artsmia.org): *You vessels like these began to appear during the late 1100s BCE and became prevalent during the late Shang and early Western Zhou (c. 1300–977 BCE). In line with late Shang tastes, the vessel is richly decorated within seven horizontal registers. These registers are further divided into four panels by heavy scored flanges with tooth-like projections. One noticeable change in decoration is that the bird motif has replaced the ubiquitous taotie animal mask as the dominant decoration. This change heralded a flourishing period from late 900 to 800 BCE, when pairs of large, elaborately designed birds became the visual focus on bronze vessels.* [More information](https://collections.artsmia.org/art/17432/you-wine-vessel-china)