Tomb Tile with Scene of a Feast and Landscape with Animals
Tomb Tile with Scene of a Feast and Landscape with Animals
DateEastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE)
Mediumgray earthenware with molded design
Dimensionsobject: 18 x 13 x 2 1/8 in. (45.7 x 33 x 5.4 cm)
base: 2 x 15 1/2 x 4 in. (5.1 x 39.4 x 10.2 cm)
ClassificationCERAMICS
Credit LineSBMA, Museum purchase with the John and Peggy Maximus Fund
Object number2009.9.2
Subject(s)
- animal
- mountain
- men
- bird
- deer
Collection
- Asian
Sub-Collection(s)
- Chinese
On View
On viewLabel TextThis tile combines two major types of imagery that coexisted in Han tombs: scenes of daily life and vision of immortality in landscape. There are six registers of narrative scenes in shallow relief. The top five registers show a repeating interior scene, possibly a banquet, with two conversing sword-carrying men and a dancer, surrounded by cooking vessels and a bird. The bottom register features a landscape of rolling mountains with roaming animals and immortal figures. This stylized yet rhythmic scene belongs to a narrative tradition in Chinese pictorial art that is also found in the rarely preserved paintings of the period.
China, Xian and Xianyang region
Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE)
Pakistan, Baluchistan, Mehrgarh or Chalcolithic Culture
3500-2500 BCE
China
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-8 CE)
China
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE)
China, Jiangxi province
Southern Song dynasty, 12th-13th century
