Meat-shaped stone

Today’s Wordless Wednesday features the “Meat-shaped stone,” one of the most famous works in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Dating from the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), possibly from the nineteenth century, it is a piece of banded jasper that has been carefully carved (including the drilling of tiny holes to imitate pores) and stained to resemble a piece of fatty pork belly marinated in soy sauce. It is said to resemble the pork dish dongpo rou. The “Meat-shaped stone” was the culminating work in the exhibition Emperors’ Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Photo: National Palace Museum, Taipei