12th-11th Century BCE yu (food vessel) in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
From the object's description on artsmia.org:
"Stylized animal motifs predominate Shang bronze decor. The dragon, snake, cicada, ram, owl, tiger and even elephant can all be found. These creatures were almost always subordinate to the taotie mask which typically dominates the largest or most important register of nearly all Shang bronzes. This exquisite food bowl has three such masks clearly cast in high relief encircling its cauldron. Below each mask, in the foot band, are two confronting dragons shown in profile, while four similar dragons appear above each mask in the top decorative band. The exact meaning of the taotie mask to the ancients is unknown, but it undoubtedly held magical powers and protected the sacredness of the vessel and the grave."
More information about the object here:
http://collections.artsmia.org/art/833/food-vessel-yu-china
This STL is scaled to 100% of the original - 25 cm across - you may want to resize it for printing.
Made with a few hundred 20-megapixel photos, built in PhotoScan, resized in Meshlab, cleaned up in netfabb Basic.
This object on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/NrSR
| Mia_50_46_121_Yu.stl | 11.9MB |
